


Aria Ashborn and the Order of the Phoenix

by alli__cat1



Series: Aria Ashborn [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-06-08
Packaged: 2019-04-25 11:45:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 27
Words: 41,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14377968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alli__cat1/pseuds/alli__cat1
Summary: It's Aria's 5th year at Hogwarts. She's still getting over the death of her boyfriend, Cedric Diggory, and now dealing with a looming Wizarding War. Aria and her father are brought into the Order of the Phoenix and so the events of the 5th book unfold. However, Harry seemed to have a crush on Aria last year but now he fancies Cho Chang. As Aria gets over Cedric, she begins to find herself having feelings for Harry. As Ginny puts it, "Your timing really is awful". Harry feels more isolated than ever this year, and it's up to Ron, Hermione, and Aria to prove to him that he's not alone and the one thing he's got that Voldemort doesn't is friendship.





	1. A Peck of Owls

**Author's Note:**

> So this installment is definitely better than my last! I've done way more research for this one and reread "Order of the Phoenix" especially for it! I hope you enjoy it! I worked hard on it and I've got so much more planned! I'm going to post twice a week (but I may increase it to three times a week)

July 8, 1995  
Dear Harry,  
How are you? A dumb question, I know. You must be feeling awful. The term ended on a very sour note. Just keep looking forward to September first. I know I am. I can’t wait to see you, Ron, and Hermione again. Have you read the Daily Prophet lately? Well, don’t. They can only speculate, but you actually saw what happened in that graveyard that night. There I go, reminding you of that terrible event again. I’m sorry. Can’t wait to see you.  
Your friend,  
Aria

July 10, 1995  
Hello Aria,  
I just wanted to check up on you. What happened to Cedric was awful and if you need to talk, please feel free to write. Also, I know you live in a muggle community, as do I. Maybe we could get together? I miss having a girlfriend to talk to. The things the Daily Prophet is writing is rubbish. I hope Harry doesn’t look too much into them. It’s also insulting to Cedric’s memory. I should like to write a complaint. In fact, I’ve already drafted one. It’s 10 pages, can you believe it? They probably won’t even read it.  
Hope you are well,  
Hermione

 

July 11, 1995  
Dear Aria,  
I appreciate you trying to cheer me up. Really, I do. But I can’t just forget that all of that happened. I still have nightmares. How are you? I’m sure this hasn’t been easy for you. I don’t do much here but wait for Hogwarts. Aunt Petunia has me bring her buckets of ice all day long for her to put her nasty feet into. I tell her I’m going to the store to get more ice just to get away. I’d rather be out in the heat wave than inside with the Dursleys. Nothing ever changes on Privet Drive. Mrs. Figg is always watering her magnolias and Dudley is always bullying kids at the corner store. None of them are aware of the war brewing right under their noses. I really appreciate you writing to me. Ron and Hermione haven’t sent a single letter. Have you heard from them?  
Yours,  
Harry

July 11, 1995  
Hermione,  
I would love to get together with you! However, I have been writing Harry lately and he is concerned that neither you or Ron have written him. I know it’s still early in the summer, but still. I think he needs extra support from all of us right now. Also, he has so many questions I’m sure Ron could answer for him. He’s on the outskirts.  
Your friend,  
Aria

July 17, 1995  
Harry,  
I am doing my best. I had dinner at the Diggorys’ last night. It was actually quite painful despite the fact that I went to bring them comfort. Mrs. Diggory is doing better compared to Mr. Diggory. She doesn’t cry in front of me, although, I’m sure she cries plenty on her own. It’s almost been a month. Mr. Diggory has almost completely shut down. His wife had to drag him to dinner and he barely touched his food. It’s terrible. Hermione wrote to me last week but I haven’t heard from Ron. Have you sent them a letter? Maybe their owls have gotten lost. I can’t imagine they would ignore you.  
Take care,  
Aria

P.s I have nightmares too.

 

July 24, 1995  
Aria,  
It’s nice that you visit the Diggorys. I don’t know if I would be able to face them. I know I should have nothing to feel guilty about, yet I still am for some reason. I’ll be honest, it bothered me a little that Hermione had written to you and not me. Actually, both Ron and Hermione wrote me after I got your last letter. However, neither of them are answering any of my questions. It’s very frustrating. I also don’t understand why they waited ‘till almost a month after term ended to write. I hate this isolation. I hope to soon be able to spend my summers with Sirius, my godfather. Then I won’t ever have to come back to Privet drive again. By the way, it’s been just about a year since the Quidditch World Cup. I know that night was awful but I have good memories of the time before it because it was when we started to become friends.  
Yours,  
Harry

July 31, 1995  
Happy birthday Harry,  
I’ve sent a cake as well! I hope you enjoy it. It’s angel food cake and my own special recipe. Only another month until we get to go back to Hogwarts! Perhaps we can all meet at the burrow some time?  
Your friend,  
Aria

 

1 August 1995  
Dear Miss Ashborn,  
I’m writing to inquire if you have spoken to your father lately? He received a special gift from me some time ago and I’d like to hear what he thought of it. It’s of the utmost importance that you speak with him about it Miss Ashborn. I do hope your summer is going splendidly.  
Sincerely,  
Albus Dumbledore


	2. Dumbledore's Letter

Aria traced Dumbledore’s signature with her finger. The ink was slightly raised. She sat on the edge of her bed in her small, cottage-like house. She had so many questions about the letter she just read and scanned it once more, hoping for answers. She put it down as to think to herself, she stroked her grey and white owl, Ani. Aria put her dark brown hair, which was no longer blonde at the ends, in a bun. Now, her hair simply had one streak of red down towards the front of her wavy mane. There was only one person who could decipher her letter. Aria folded the parchment back up and made her way down the creaky stairs. Her mother, who she was a spitting image of, was cutting carrots in the kitchen. The counter faced a medium sized window which had closed blinds.

“Mum?” Aria asked, making her way over to her mother, who did not turn.

“Yes, Pumpkin?” her mother asked brightly, still cutting the carrots.

“Where is Dad?” Aria required.

“He’s out mowing the lawn.” Mrs. Ashborn said, putting the sliced carrots into a large pot on the stove, “Why?”

“I just received a message from Professor Dumbledore.” Aria said. Her mother stopped what she was doing and turned around.

“The headmaster? Whatever for?” Her voice wavered a bit.

“I was hoping to speak to Dad about it.” Aria replied.

“Yes.” Mrs. Ashborn nodded before turning back to the sink. Aria was just about to go into the backyard when she stopped herself. Her mother seemed to be acting odd.

“Mum?” She asked.

“Hm?” Her mother asked, turning back to her but not meeting her eyes.

“Nevermind.” Aria said, realizing whatever her mother did know, she wouldn’t tell her. Aria went out into the small backyard. Mr. Ashborn was sitting in a lawn chair on the pavement while the lawn mower mowed the lawn by magic. Every now and then, he’d think he’d see a muggle neighbor coming and he’d run and pretend he was mowing. 

“Dad!” Aria called over the sound of the loud mower, “Dad!”

Mr. Ashborn finally took notice.“Yes darling?”

“Can you turn that dreadful thing off?” she called. “This is important.” Mr. Ashborn nodded, happily, and pointed his wand at the mower and turned it off.

“What is so important?” Mr. Ashborn asked, making his way to Aria.

“This.” Aria said as she handed her father the letter.

Mr. Ashborn read it over quickly. “Dumbledore.” he said, pointing at the letter angrily, “How dare he bring you into this.”

“Into what?” Aria asked, taken back by her father’s reaction, “And you adore Dumbledore.”

“I do,” Mr. Ashborn replied, sighing, “but he should’ve told me before writing to you about all this.”

“About what?” Aria asked.

“About the Order.” Mr. Ashborn said, instantly regretting telling his daughter that.

“The Order?” 

“The Order of the Phoenix.” Mr. Ashborn explained, realizing Aria wouldn’t stop until she got answers, “Dumbledore assembled it back during the First Wizarding War. He’s reassembling it now. I was not a part of it the first time nor will I be a part of it this time.”

“Were you asked to?” Aria asked, following her father as he made his way back towards the house.

“Dumbledore asked me to, yes.” he said irritably before stopping, “He believes that we are all in danger with how close you are becoming to Harry Potter and would like us to be brought into the fold.”

“So let’s join then!” Aria replied.

“First of all, he asked me to join. You are far too young. Second of all, it’s too dangerous.”

“It’s dangerous either way, Dad!” Aria argued, “You-know-who is back. We may as well fight against him. Does mum know about this?”

“She does and she stands with me.” he said firmly.

“I can’t believe how cowardly you’re being.” Aria scoffed, “We can’t just sit back and watch, Dad.”

“We can and we will.”

“You should feel honored that Dumbledore recruited you to be a part of this order.” Aria said.

Mr. Ashborn sighed, “I do feel honored, sweetheart.” he said, stepping closer to his daughter, more calmly, “But, I won’t put you and your mum in danger.”

“I am already in danger, Dad.” Aria replied, “In case you don’t remember, my boyfriend was murdered last year.”

“I know, darling, and I’m terribly sorry.” Mr. Ashborn put a hand on her shoulder, sincerely.

She took his hand off, “I don’t care if you or mum join the order, but I am.” She turned to walk back towards the house.

“And how are you going to do that?” Mr. Ashborn called after her.

“I’ll write to Dumbledore and tell him.” she replied, opening the door. A beat passed.

“Ari, wait.”


	3. Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place

“This is it.” Aria’s father said. The two stood in front of a large apartment building. It was around 6 o’clock. The address they were looking for was number twelve Grimmauld Place. This address was written on a small piece of paper Mr. Ashborn held in his hand.

“A bit underwhelming.” Aria said. She wore jeans and sneakers with a striped sweater. She had a brown leather backpack over her shoulder. It was beginning to wear on her and her shoulder began to ache. Suddenly, the building began to moan. The Ashborns stepped back as the building pushed its neighbor buildings, 11 and 13, aside revealing number 12 between them. The muggles in the other two building seemed to be completely unaware. A worn set of steps were revealed leading to the battered front door. “I’ve spoken too soon.”

The Ashborns approached the front door. On the door, there was a silver knocker in the shape of a twisted serpent, with no keyholes, handles, or anything else that would indicate it to be a door, as it opens only by magic. There was a doorbell to the side. Aria was hesitant to press. Before she could, however, the door swung open slowly with a creak, to reveal a long, gas-lit hallway. As the Ashborns made their way down it, the door closed behind them. The hallway was gloomy and cobwebby with wallpaper peeling off the walls and the carpet worn thin. At the end of the hallway was a doorway that Ron and Hermione burst through causing a bit of a jump scare between the Ashborns.

“Aria!” Hermione whispered, wrapping Aria in a hug. Hermione’s bushy hair pressed into Aria’s cheeks.

“Can’t be too loud.” She whispered, answering Aria’s question, “Follow me.” Hermione and Ron led the Ashborns into a dimly lit drawing room. Aria began to wonder what sort of wizards lived here.

“Ron! Hermione!” Aria said with delight when in the room. It had been too long since she had seen her friends. She gave Ron a hug as Mr. and Mrs. Weasley made their way behind Hermione. Over Hermione’s left shoulder was a staircase.

“How good to see you again, Aria.” Mr. Weasley said, shaking Aria’s hand before turning to Mr. Ashborn. “This must be your father.”

“Hello everyone.” Aria’s father said, “I’m Jacob Ashborn.”

“Arthur.” Mr. Weasley said, shaking Mr. Ashborn’s hand enthusiastically. “Good to meet you.”

“So you must be Ron and Hermione.” Mr. Ashborn said with a smile having heard loads about them.

“Yes, sir.” Ron nodded.

“So good to finally meet you!” Mrs. Weasley said, pushing her way past Ron and Mr. Weasley and wrapping Aria in a warm, rib-crushing hug, much to her surprise. She let Aria go. “I’m Molly. You folks hungry?”

“Boy, are we.” Mr. Ashborn with a smile on his lips.

“Mum, let ‘em get settled in first.” Ron said and Aria knew it was so the three of them could talk alone before dinner.

“Oh yes.” Mrs. Weasley said, brushing them off, “Ron and Hermione will show you to your rooms and you can meet us down here for dinner.” Ron nodded and she and Hermione started up the staircase, followed by the Ashborns. As they went, Aria passed a battered pair of curtains and she curiously wondered what was behind them. When they reached the first floor, another long hallway greeted them. On the wall, what seemed to be house-elf heads were mounted on the wall. Ron and Hermione seem to be used to it but Aria shared a quick, disgusted glance with her father. When they reached the second door on the right, Ron stopped.

“This’ll be your room Mr. Ashborn and Aria will be bunking with Hermione and Ginny.” Ron said kindly. Aria gave her father a look and Mr. Ashborn caught on.

“I’ll see you at dinner, Sweetheart.” he said, before retiring to his room. The three students then went into Hermione’s room, eager to talk about everything. Aria had so many questions she couldn’t even wait for Ron to close the door.

“So how come neither of you told me anything about this?” Aria asked, crossing her arms as Ron closed the door.

“Dumbledore fears that we’re all being watched.” Hermione said tentatively, and Aria put her bag down on the floor, “We couldn’t risk the letters getting intercepted.”

“And Harry,” Aria continued, “does he know?”

“No.” Ron replied with a frown, “Dumbledore made us swear not to tell him anything.”

“Why?”

“No idea.” said Ron, “But it’s why we’ve been avoiding writing him.”

Aria sighed, “He’s going to be upset, you know.”

“I’m sure he’ll understand.” Hermione replied.

“Is he coming here?” Aria asked and both Ron and Hermione looked at each other and shrugged.

“Dinner!” Mrs. Weasley called from down below and Aria followed her friends into the dining room, which featured a long table and many chairs. Everyone was filling in as Mrs. Weasley charmed the food to magically float out onto the table. The space was kind of tight so Aria bumped into a few friends on her way to her seat. The first was Fred and the next was George.

“Hello Aria.” they both said in sync.

“Yes, hello Aria.” a deeper voice said from behind her. Aria turned to see a taller middle-aged man. He had a mustache and wavy black and grey hair that almost touched his shoulders. He wore a brown suit and his eyes were tired. “I’m Sirius.”

“Oh yes.” Aria said with a smile, “Harry’s godfather?”

“Yes.” Sirius said and seemed to laugh a bit, “The first thing that pops into most people’s heads when they hear my name is ‘escaped convict’.”

“Harry mentioned you.” Aria replied.

“So he did.” said Sirius, “He’s also told me a great deal about you.”

“Aria, your hair!” Hermione called, having just sat down. 

“What?” Aria turned, “Oh, yes, I’ve changed it.” Aria touched the red streak in her hair before taking a seat.

“You’ve got a letter, Sirius.” Mrs. Weasley said, handing the letter to Sirius who read it over quickly. He looked a bit concerned as he turned the paper over to see if there was anything written on the back.

“What is it, Sirius?” Mr. Weasley asked, taking a seat next to Sirius. 

“It’s from Dumbledore.” Sirius replied, “Harry will be arriving very soon.”

“Oh that’s wonderful news.” Mrs. Weasley said but the look in Sirius’s eyes did not say ‘wonderful news’.

“Yes, Molly, but it’s not under the best circumstances, I’m afraid.” Sirius replied.

“May I see the letter?” Mr. Weasley asked, worried and Sirius obliged. Mrs. Weasley looked to see that everyone was wrapped up in the conversation.

“This isn’t for children’s ears.” Mrs. Weasley said, “Off to your rooms.”

“Mum,” said Ginny, “We haven’t even got to eat yet”

“We’ll eat when Harry gets here.” Mrs. Weasley said with a smile, “Shouldn’t be too long.” Fred, George, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Aria all got up and went out the door. Aria had only just met Mrs. Weasley and while she did want to be included in the discussion, she thought it best not to pick a fight with people she barely knew. There was no way her father would allow her to stay either. Aria’s left foot had barely touched the landing when Fred called her to the banister.

“Oi!” he said and motioned for them all to come over to him. They did, tentatively, except for George.

Click! George had aparated next to Ginny and Fred. 

“What’s that?” Aria asked as George held up a string with a hand-sized, flesh-colored ear attached to the bottom.

“Extendable Ear.” said George, “It will allow us to hear what they’re saying. It’s how we get all the information from the meetings.”

Aria looked to see the others unfazed by this. They must have used this quite often. Had that meant that they were generally not allowed to hear what’s going on in the Order? That made Aria feel better and a little less left out. She hoped that’s how Harry would feel. George then lowered the Extendable Ear to the outside of the door. Hermione, Ron, Aria, Ginny, and Fred all learned their heads over the banister.

Sirius’s voice could be heard through the door. “Harry’s been expelled from Hogwarts.”

“Whatever for?” Mr. Weasley asked, sounding flabbergasted.

“The use of a Patronus charm.” Sirius explained calmer than Mr. Weasley, yet still worried, “Dumbledore said Harry and his cousin were attacked by dementors.”

“Why would the dementors go after an underaged wizard and a muggle?” Mr. Ashborn asked, “The ministry controls them.”

“Maybe someone else sent them.” Mr. Weasley said.

“Either way they simply can’t expel him for self-defense.” Mrs. Weasley said indignantly.

“I don’t think Fudge is too inclined to believe anything about you-know-who right now.” her husband replied.

“He refuses to even believe he’s returned.” said Mr. Ashborn. Aria was surprised at just how much her father seemed to know. She assumed he was just as much on the outside as her.

“Who's bringing him here?” Mrs. Weasley asked.

“Moody, Tonks, and Kingsley.” Sirius replied, “The rest of the Order should be arriving soon as well to discuss it.” The kids looked at each other. Hermione was fuming and quickly started down the hall. Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Aria followed while Fred and George stayed to listen.

“So Harry is being expelled because Fudge is irrational?” Ginny exclaimed as they reached the bedroom.

“The ministry can’t do this, can they?” Aria asked as they all made their way into Hermione and Aria’s room.

“I have to look it up but I doubt it.” Hermione replied, “I know for sure that he does have a right to a hearing before they can expel him.” Hermione then rummaged in her bag and pulled out a green, dusty book and began to search. No one was really speaking to each other so Aria decided to unpack and Ginny left the room. Aria found herself deep in thought as she put a jumper in a drawer. They just couldn’t expel Harry. After everything he’s been through and all his heroic acts, how could they just throw him out? Would they snap his wand? Then Aria started to think selfishly. Would she have to return to Hogwarts without her best friend? 

About an hour later, they heard footsteps in the hall. Hermione put her book down and stood up with Ron and Aria behind her. The doorknob turned slowly and opened to reveal Harry. Hermione instantly wrapped him in a hug. Aria could not contain the excitement on her face. Harry’s hair was as untamed as ever, yet it was shorter than when Aria had last seen him. He wore a simple t-shirt and jeans. His sneakers were battered and his glasses lay titled on his face from the momentum of Hermione jumping on him.

“Oh, Harry.” Hermione said, releasing him, “Are you all right?”

Before Harry could adjust his glasses Aria had made her way over to him and they embraced, “We overheard them talking about the Dementor attack.”

“You must tell us everything.” Hermione said quickly.

“Let the man breathe.” Ron laughed.

“And this hearing at the Ministry.” Hermione continued, ignoring Ron, “It's just outrageous. I've looked it up. They simply can't expel you. It's completely unfair.” 

“Yeah.” Harry said bitterly walking to the other side of the room, “There's a lot of that going around at the moment. So, what is this place?” Aria had expected her reunion with Harry to be much happier than this yet it seemed like he couldn’t even look at them.

“It's headquarters.” Ron replied.

“Of the Order of the Phoenix.” Aria said.

“It's a secret society.” Hermione explained, noticing Harry’s look of inquiry, “Dumbledore formed it back when they fought You-Know-Who.”

“Couldn't have put any of this in a letter, I suppose?” Harry asked, bitterly again, “I've gone all summer without a scrap of news.”

“We wanted to write, mate.” Ron said, scratching the back of his neck with a frown, “Really, we did. Only…”

“Only what?” Harry snapped.

“Only Dumbledore made us swear not to tell you anything.” Hermione jumped in.

“Dumbledore said that?” Harry asked, feeling a bit offended, “But why would he keep me in the dark? Maybe I could help. I'm the one who saw Voldemort return the one who fought him, who saw Cedric Diggory get killed.” Harry looked to see Aria’s eyes downcast at the mention of Cedric. “Aria. Did you know about this the whole time?”

“No, I only found out a day before you did.” she replied defensively.

“Dinner!” Mrs. Weasley called again.

“For real, this time?” Ron asked, turning towards the door. Aria went to follow Ron and Hermione as they exited but Harry’s voice pulled her back.

“So how come everyone else already knew about this, but you found out only yesterday?” Harry asked. Again, his voice was sharp. This was Aria’s first experience with this angry side of him.

“My dad kept it from me.” Aria said softly, facing Harry.

“Why?” Harry asked, taking a step closer to her. His angry expression faded as he realized Aria had been just as in the dark about all this as he had been.

“Because he thought it was too dangerous.” Aria replied. 

“He's right.” Harry nodded, and Aria felt that Harry sounded just like her father, “It is too dangerous.”

Aria rolled her eyes with a smile, “I’m in danger either way because I’m friends with you.”

“Exactly.” Harry said, “Which is why maybe…”

Aria scoffed, “You want me to just stop being friends with you?” Was Harry really trying to cut her off? 

Harry didn’t meet her eyes, “If it keeps you all safer then maybe.” he said softly.

She wanted to be angry with him for even thinking that way but she realized that wasn’t the best approach. Her face turned soft. Aria looked at him and their eyes met, “You can’t fight this war on your own, Harry.”

“I think Dumbledore disagrees.” Harry said, defaulting back to bitter, “He's isolated me from just about everyone all summer.”

“I'm sure Dumbledore has his reasons.”


	4. The Order of the Phoenix

Harry and Aria made their way down the dark creaky stairs. Hermione and Ron were just reaching the bottom and Ginny had already made her way into the dining room. Mrs. Weasley stood outside the kitchen door, smiling at the kids as they came. Aria didn't know Mrs. Weasley long, but she admired how she put on a brave face in the dark situation. She patted Ron on the back as he and Hermione made her way past her into the dining room. Click! Suddenly, Fred and George apparated on either side of Mrs. Weasley, she gasped, startled.

“Just because you can use magic outside of school now does not mean you can whip your wands out for everything!” She shouted and hit them on their shoulders before turning and taking them in. Aria and Harry had just reached the bottom of the stairs into the drawing room.

“You must be the famous Harry Potter I’ve heard so much about!” Mr. Ashborn said, making his way from the dining room door, towards Harry. Harry noticed how Aria’s father did not look too much like her. He had dirty blonde hair and Aria’s was dark brown. He was a round man, but not fat and to Harry looked like the type who would play Father Christmas at holiday parties as he seemed like the jolly sort.

“And you must be Mr. Ashborn.” Harry said politely, shaking Aria’s father’s hand, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, sir.”

“I’m terribly sorry about current events.” Mr. Ashborn said, shaking his head, “So much misfortune. I’m happy to help in whatever way I can. You know, when Aria said she made a new friend-”

“That’s enough, Dad.” Aria smiled, a bit embarrassed, “You’ll talk his ear off.”

“Oh that’s alright.” Harry said kindly, although truthfully he wanted to go into the dining room and find Sirius.

“See, the boy has manners.” Mr. Ashborn joked, “Maybe he could teach you some, Aria.”

“Oh dad.” Aria giggled before turning to Harry, “He’s joking, Harry.” Harry admired their relationship. Aria and her father seemed to be great friends teasing each other rather than the typical parental relationship he had seen with the Weasleys.

“You should’ve met her when she was a sprout.” Mr. Ashborn said, “So rambunctious. We’re banned from the local zoo.”

“That was one time, which I’m sure Harry doesn’t want to talk about right now.” Aria said blushing, before taking her father’s arm and escorting him to the dining room, away from Harry, “Come on. I can’t take you anywhere.”

“Well I can’t take you to zoo.” Harry heard Mr. Ashborn as they disappeared into the dining room. Harry went to follow them but stopped when Sirius emerged from the door.

“Harry Potter.” Sirius said with a smile.

“Sirius!” Harry shouted before wrapping his godfather in a hug. Sirius smelt just like the house. He seemed to blend in with it too. He was much cleaner than when Harry had last seen him but his eyes still seemed tired like the house and old like it too. The two then went to sit down in the dining room. Sirius sat at the end with Harry next to him. Harry sat across from Lupin who had just arrived. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley sat at the other end. Everyone was talking and eating and having a good time, although soon the conversation turned more serious at Harry’s end of the table. Aria was seated between Ginny and a young woman with short, magenta hair.

“Nice hair, kid.” The woman said.

“Thanks.” Aria said, tucking the red streak behind her ear. Suddenly the woman’s hair turned from magenta to red to match Aria’s streak. “Woah. You’re a-”

“Metamorphmagus.” the woman said with a smile, “I’m Tonks.”

“I’m Aria.” Aria replied.

“I know who you are.” Tonks said, smirking, “It’s my job to know after all.”

“Quiet down you two!” Mad-Eye Moody shouted from his spot next to Harry.

“I’ve never met Moody when he’s actually been Moody.” Aria said, taking a good look at the man. His eye still zoomed around revoltingly.

“Consider yourself lucky.” Tonks said and Ginny and Aria giggled.

“Tonks!” Mad-Eye shouted.

“Only joking Mad-Eye!” Tonks replied. Now the table did quiet down as Mad-Eye had requested and conversation at the end of the table became the point of focus.

“I don't understand.” Harry said, “What has the Ministry of Magic got against me?”

“Show him.” Mad-Eye said, his voice grungy, “He'll find out soon enough.” Kingsley Shacklebolt then handed Harry a copy of the Daily Prophet. Kingsley was a bald, black wizard with a single gold hoop earring in one ear. Aria couldn’t see the headline on the paper but she had an idea of its content.

“He's been attacking Dumbledore as well.” Sirius explained, “Fudge is using all his power, including his influence at the Daily Prophet... to smear anyone who claims the Dark Lord has returned.” Aria took a piece of bread from the table. Had this really been the first time Harry’s read the Daily Prophet this summer?

“Why?” Harry asked, frustrated.

“The minister thinks Dumbledore's after his job.” Lupin said.

“But that’s insane!” Harry exclaimed, “No one in their right mind could believe that-”

“Exactly the point.” Lupin interrupted. His face was tired, and his hair was messy, “Fudge isn't in his right mind. It's been twisted and warped by fear. Now, fear makes people do terrible things, Harry. The last time Voldemort gained power... he almost destroyed everything we hold most dear. Now he's returned, and I'm afraid the minister will do almost anything... to avoid facing that terrifying truth.” Every time someone used the V word, there were shudders from the rest of the table.

“We think Voldemort wants to build up his army.” Sirius said, in a very serious tone. A quick glance at Molly Weasley would tell you that this topic was not to spoken of in front of children. “Fourteen years ago, he had huge numbers at his command. And not just witches and wizards, but all manner of dark creatures. He's been recruiting heavily, and we've been attempting to do the same. But gathering followers isn't the only thing he's interested in. We believe... Voldemort may be after something.”

“Sirius.” Mad-Eye warned.

“Something he didn't have last time.” Sirius finished.

“You mean like a weapon?” Harry asked, basking in the information he had been looking for all summer.

“No.” Mrs. Weasley finally said as though she had been wanting to say it all along, “That's enough. He's just a boy. You say more and you might as well induct him into the Order.”

“Good. I want to join.” Harry said, surprising everyone how passionate he was, “If Voldemort's raising an army, then I want to fight.” Sirius smiled at him and winked.


	5. The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Indicates flashbacks*

Harry’s trial was set for Thursday. In the meantime, everyone began cleaning up Grimmauld Place. Most of the Order had left. All that remained were the Weasleys, Aria and her father, Hermione, and Sirius. Hermione, Ron, Harry, and Aria were in the dusty living room of number 12 Grimmauld Place. Ron was dusting the mantel while the others looked through boxes in the corner of the room. 

“It could take ages to go through all this stuff.” Hermione said, pulling out dusty picture frames.

“That’s because it’s been collecting for ages, probably.” Ron said, before sneezing, “Why do I have to do the dusting?”

“Will you stop complaining, Ronald?” Hermione rolled her eye. Aria rose and took a feather duster from a top the mantel.

“I’ll help you, Ron.” she said and began dusting the window seal.

“What do you think Sirius meant by a weapon?” Harry asked and it surprised Aria that he hadn’t already asked this. It was the question that was on everyone’s minds after all.

“Dunno.” said Hermione simply.

“Whatever it is, if we get it first, do you think we could have a chance at defeating him?” Harry asked, “At beating Voldemort.” Everyone shuddered except for Harry.

“What’s wrong with using his name?” Harry asked irritably. “Lupin and Sirius use it.”

“So Aria.” Hermione said, trying to change the conversation topic, “How was it with Cedric’s parents?”

“As delightful as you’d expect.” Aria said sarcastically, “We had cakes and pies and sang songs.”

“Well aren’t you full of sarcasm.” Ron muttered.

“Oh shh Ron.” Hermione replied, “That awful?”

*Aria sat at the Diggory dinner table. Mrs. Diggory sat at the head while Aria and Mr. Diggory sat either side of her. Aria ate her meatloaf in silence. All that could be heard was the scraping of Mrs. Diggory cutting her food. Mr. Diggory stared straight down at his plate and didn’t even move.

“Mrs. Diggory,” Aria said to break the awkward silence, “this meal is delicious.”

“Thank you, dear.” she replied. Her eyes looked tired, and large bag had formed under them, “It was nice of you to bring dessert for us. Amos, you haven’t even touched your supper. Why don’t you ask Aria how her week has been and I’ll get you some pie?”

“How has your week been?” Mr. Diggory asked, robotically.

“Quite boring, actually.” Aria replied, “I’ve been writing a summer essay for potions.”

 

“For Professor Snape?” Mrs. Diggory inquired.

“Yes.” Aria forced a smile, “He seems to enjoy giving out summer assignments. How has your week been Mr. Diggory?”

“Excuse me.” Mr. Diggory said, standing up from the table and going to his room.

“He’s just...tired.” Mrs. Diggory replied.

“It’s alright.” Aria said. When Mrs. Diggory didn’t say anything, they both went back to their meatloaf and the silence seemed to last forever.

“How about some pie?” Mrs. Diggory asked.*

“It was absolutely depressing.” Aria said, thinking back on it. Harry could see this brought Aria discomfort.

“Filthy blood traitors.” said a grimey, old voice, “If Mistress could see them in her house…”

Aria and Harry turned to see a short, old house elf. His large ears had grown long white hairs and his face looked as if someone had started to melt wax and then froze it that way. The only clothing he wore was a loincloth over his middle.

“Hello Kreacher.” said Hermione kindly.

“And then there’s the Mudblood.” Kreacher said, walking over to the box Hermione and Harry were looking through. He started going through it and tossed out a heavy locket and a music box.

“Don’t call her that!” Aria and Ron said at the same time.

“It’s alright.” said Hermione. “He’s old. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”

“Still going on about Spew?” Ron asked indignantly. Hermione threw a look at him. Kreacher then wandered out of the room.

“Cedric tried to teach you Quidditch didn’t he?” Harry asked, changing the subject as he went through a few more things in the box.

“What do you mean by ‘tried’?” Aria laughed.

“It’s hard to tell if he was successful.” Harry joked, “I’ve never seen you ride a broom.”

“I’ll have you know, I’m pretty good.” Aria replied, “I may just try out for the team...one day.”

“Why not this year?”

“I’m pretty good. I want to be excellent before I try out for the team.” Aria said.

“I could coach you if you’d like?” Harry asked, “If you really want to, you should go for it.”

“I’ve never been particularly fond of just ‘going for it’.” Aria blushed.

“You never know unless you try.” Ron chimed in, “I’m gonna be a keeper one of these days. Maybe 6th year when my schedule frees up.”

“Then it’s settled.” Hermione said, “You’ll both try out next year.”

“What?” Aria and Ron both said simultaneously.

“I didn’t agree to that.” Aria defended.

“And I said maybe.” Ron added.

“I say you make a pact right now.” Hermione said, standing up and dusting her clothes off.

“Yeah,” Harry agreed, “and how about if one of you chickens out then the other has to do homework for the winner.”

“Ron can’t do my homework.” Aria said, hoping it would get her out of it.

“But you can do mine.” Ron laughed.

“Fine,” Aria smirked, “but if you chicken out then you have to carry my books all year.”

“Deal.” Ron said putting his hand out.

“Deal.” Aria said, shaking Ron’s hand before it hit her. “Wait…”

“You have to try out now.” Harry said.

“Yay.” Aria said sarcastically before going back to her dusting.


	6. To Hear of the Hearing

It was the day of the hearing and Mr. Weasley and Harry had gone to the Ministry of Magic for his trial. Everyone else was forced to wait for news. They needed to get their minds off it so the kids decided to take the floo network to Diagon Alley and go back-to-school shopping. Mrs. Weasley was hesitant at first but allowed them to go nonetheless. Fred, George, Hermione, Ginny, Ron, and Aria arrived in Diagon alley and walked down the cold street. What they had known before to be cheerful and fun, didn’t feel that way anymore. It looked the same but it didn’t feel the same.

“Is it just me or does this place seem a little darker than before?” Fred asked. Aria noticed that there weren’t as many witches and wizards walking around.

“Everything seems a little darker lately.” Hermione replied grimly.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking, Freddy?” George asked his brother.

“Nope.” Fred replied. Fred, George, Hermione, and Ron made their way to Flourish and Blotts. Aria was following when she turned around to see Ginny running up to the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies.

“Check out these brooms!” Ginny exclaimed, looking through the window at a Comet 260. Hermione, Ron, and Aria made their way over to her,

“Are you going to try out this year, Ginny?” Hermione asked.

“Maybe.” she replied confidently, “I’ve been practicing a lot lately. I’ve always wanted to.”

“No way my sister is gonna be on the team before I am.” Ron said grudgingly.

“Come on.” Hermione said, “We need to get our books.” Ron followed her but Ginny and Aria stayed back.

“This one’s cool.” Aria said, pointing to a Cleansweep. Her and Ginny entered the store and the little bell rang as they did so. Ginny picked up the Comet 260 and weighed it in her hands.

“Think Dad would buy it for me if I ask enough?” Ginny asked. Before Aria could answer a cold voice spoke from behind them.

“Why don’t you put it down, Weasley?” Draco asked and the two girls reluctantly turned around to see Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, “It’s not like you can afford it.”

“Go away, Draco.” Aria scoffed as Ginny put the broom down. Draco wore dark clothing and his blonde hair was slicked back. Aria was surprised he could even show his face and strut around as confidently as he did considering Harry had seen Draco’s father in the cemetery that night Voldemort returned.

“Aria.” Draco smirked, “Still pretending like you’re relevant.”

“Malfoy.” Aria said, narrowing her eyes, “Still bullying people to make yourself feel good?”

“I heard from my father that Harry Potter’s been expelled.” Malfoy said with a smile.

“Well you heard wrong.” Ginny chimed in, hands on her hips.

“Oh right.” Malfoy said smugly, “He has a hearing then he’ll be expelled.” Crabbe and Goyle laughed.

“Dumbledore won’t let that happen.” Aria said as the chime of the door rang and Ron and Hermione entered. When Hermione saw Malfoy she walked quickly over to Aria and Ginny. Her face turned to instant anger.

“Don’t you have somewhere else to be, Malfoy?” said Hermione, annoyed.

“As a matter of fact I do.” Malfoy said, “I don’t need to bother with filthy mudbloods.” This made Aria’s blood boil and her grip tightened on the Hawthorne wand in her pocket.

“You take that back, Boil Face.” Aria said. 

“Boil Face?” Malfoy asked, confused and Aria whipped out her wand and pointed it at Malfoy.

“Furnunculus!” she said calmly with a smirk. Suddenly, large red boils began to appear all over Malfoy’s face. He put his hands on his face and panicked as he felt each one appear. He began to shout and Aria, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny laughed. Malfoy grabbed Crabbe and Goyle by the shoulders and retreated from the store.

“Have fun popping those!” Aria called after him and then put her wand back in her pocket.

“I think that red streak in your hair is getting to your head.” Ron said, “When did you get so fiery?”

“I don’t know.” Aria replied as the four began to exit the store, “I think that since last year, I’ve really started to come into myself.”

“You really shouldn’t use magic outside of school,” Hermione said.

“Relax Hermione.” Aria replied, “The ministry can only tell if magic is used around an underage wizard, not if they are using it. There are a handful of witches and wizard here who are of age.”

“Yes, but still” Hermione replied. Suddenly, Mrs. Weasley came up to the four of them, having already retrieved Fred and George.

“There you all are.” she said, “I hope you finished your shopping. Harry’s back.”  
\----------------------------------------------------  
“He got off! He got off!” Fred, George, Ginny, Aria, Hermione, and Ron all sang in the living room of number 12 Grimmauld Place. It was nighttime now, and all through dinner, everyone celebrated. Aria looked to see Harry sitting alone by the fireplace, watching his friends cheer.

“Harry, I thought you’d be happier.” Aria said, approaching him.

“I am.” Harry replied, but he couldn’t quite manage a smile, “Really I am. It’s just…”

“What?” Hermione asked, joining the conversation.

“Throughout the whole trial,” Harry said, “Dumbledore didn’t even look at me.” Aria couldn’t think of a way to comfort Harry. Luckily, Mrs. Weasley entered the room just in the nick of time.

“Oh I’m so happy!” she cried. She held two letters in her hand, “Harry got off and…”

“And what?” asked Ron.

“Well just see for yourselves.” Mrs. Weasley said, handing both Ron and Hermione a letter.

“What is it?” Aria asked a bit worried as to why she didn’t receive a letter. Hermione and Ron each pulled out a Gryffindor badge from the paper with the letter P superimposed onto them.

“I’ve been made a prefect!” Hermione beamed, having read over the letter.

“Me too!” Ron shouted.

“You?” Fred asked in disbelief, “A prefect?”

“What?” Harry asked, not even hiding his disappointment. 

“Oh Ron!” Mrs. Weasley said, over the moon, “I’ll get you anything you like.”

“A new broom?” Ron asked. Mrs. Weasley hesitated for a moment. New brooms are expensive. She thought it over in her head.

“A new broom it is!” Mrs. Weasley said and Ginny scoffed. “Now it’s quite late everyone. I want you all in bed. We’ll celebrate tomorrow!” The twins disapparated and popped upstairs. However, Mrs. Weasley was too happy to care and she tottled out of the room. Ginny ran up the stairs, a bit angry that Ron would get the broom she had wanted.

“Brilliant.” Harry said as he and Aria approached Ron and Hermione, “Both of you. Perfect. Great.” 

“Thanks.” Hermione said and she Ron exited the room. Aria and Harry were following.

Aria stopped Harry when Hermione and Ron were out of earshot. “I’m sorry you didn’t get made perfect, Harry. I can tell it’s bothering you.” Aria said. Not only was this true for Harry but for Aria as well. She always knew that Hermione was the brightest witch of her year and that she, Aria, wasn’t as much as a leader at Hermione but she thought for sure that Harry would beat out Ron for prefect.

“There are bigger than problems than who gets made prefect.” Harry said, acting as if it wasn’t bothering him, but Aria knew better.


	7. Luna Lovegood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment if you're enjoying or you have any ideas you want me to implement into the following chapters!
> 
> Also *indicates flashbacks

In some ways, the train ride to Hogwarts was better for Aria this year, and in other ways, it was worse. It was good because this year, Aria actually had friends to sit with. Before, she had always been an outcast and sat wherever there was an empty seat. It was worse because there wasn’t much joy on the train. The darkness of Voldemort’s return, whether the students believed it or not, loomed over the Hogwarts Express. Harry seemed deep in thought the whole way there as he stared out the window ominously. Hermione’s nose was buried in a book and Ron had fallen asleep for most of the ride (once the two of them had left the prefect compartment). Even though she was surrounded by friends, Aria felt very lonely on this train ride to Hogwarts.

When Aria, Ron, Hermione, and Harry stepped off the train and onto the platform, they heard a cold sneer in front of them. It was Malfoy. His blond hair was not slicked back as per usual. It was swept to one side. When Malfoy turned his head, Aria could see his hair was this way to cover up a large red boil still left over from her jinx. She smirked a bit when she saw it.

“I'm surprised the Ministry's still letting you walk around free.” Draco said coldly to Harry, “Better enjoy it while you can. I expect there's a cell in Azkaban with your name on it.” Aria had words for Malfoy but before she could get them out, she turned to see Harry not being able to control his temper. Harry was about to pounce on Malfoy but Ron pulled him back. 

“What'd I tell you?” Draco said to Crabbe and Goyle beside him, “Complete nutter.”

“Just stay away from me!” Harry shouted, surprising Aria. Harry had been so silent on the train ride and suddenly he was so loud and angry. Malfoy rolled his eyes and left with his henchmen.

“It's only Malfoy.” Ron said, releasing Harry, “What'd you expect?” Harry didn’t answer. Aria wondered if she could get away with jinxing Malfoy again. As the four friends made their way to the carriages (which magically pulled themselves) that would transport the students from the station to Hogwarts, the noticed the absence of their lovable, old friend. When the friends stopped to wait for the next carriage, Aria turned to ask Harry about Hargird. However, all Harry’s attention was on the carriage in front of them, which had just begin to leave. Cho Chang sat in the back. She turned and smiled at Harry. Cho had not cast a spell but by the dopey expression on Harry’s face, it would seem as if she had

“Hi, guys.” said Neville, approaching the friends. Aria was brought out of her thoughts on her observation of Harry. The smile on Neville’s round face revealed his white, buck teeth which Aria noticed Neville had started to grow into. He smiled as he played with a light-green, moving cactus in a pot he was holding.

“Hey, Neville.” said Hermione, who had not noticed the cactus. Hermione was gazing out into the distance and Aria thought maybe she was trying to get a glimpse of Hagrid’s hut. Aria could not see whether or not there was life in Hagrid’s hut as it was too far and too dark to tell. It seemed that Hermione had come to this conclusion, as well because she looked back and frowned.

“Hey there, Neville.” Aria said as their carriage pulled up. Aria could see the back of long, flowy, blonde hair get into the carriage.

“What is it?” Harry asked, examining the front of the carriage where a horse would normally be. 

“What's what?” Ron asked.

“That.” Harry said, pointing to nothing as if everyone should know what he was talking about, “Pulling the carriage.”

Hermione and Aria shared a confused glance before Hermione said, “Nothing's pulling the carriage, Harry. It's pulling itself, like always.” Harry flushed.

“You're not going mad.” said a calm voice, as light as air, “I can see them too. You're just as sane as I am.” Aria turned to see who had said this. It was the blonde girl inside the carriage. Aria recognized her immediately as Luna Lovegood. Luna, who had been reading a magazine upside called The Quibbler, had wide, silver eyes that were scanning Aria, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Neville as they joined her in the carriage. Perhaps, Aria wondered, her eyes seemed extra big due to how faint her blonde eyebrows were.

“Everyone, this is Luna Lovegood.” Aria said, introducing her friends to the blonde girl once everyone was seated. Ron, Harry, Neville, and Hermione looked uncomfortable, unable to make eye-contact with Luna.

“You know her?” Neville asked.  
* It was the end of Aria’s second year at Hogwarts and again she found herself looking for an empty compartment on the train ride home. It’s not like she had anyone to sit with. Luckily, the first compartment she passed by was almost empty except for a pale, blonde girl. How strange. Usually, compartments were almost full, yet this one was only occupied by one person. Aria stepped into the compartment.

“Is this seat taken?” she asked, shyly. 

“Only by my Quibbler.” the girl said, pointing at the magazine across from her. She picked it up and Aria took the seat. Aria noticed the girl, who looked to be a first year, had strange dangly earrings that changed to all the colors of the rainbow. Her shirt had a picture of a weird creature on it that Aria could not identify. Aria adjusted her glasses and looked closer at the Quibbler the blonde girl was reading.

“Is that Harry Potter on the front?” Aria asked. She had heard a great deal about Harry Potter that year. She had seen him in classes and in the Gryffindor common room, but she never had the nerve to talk to him.

“I suppose it is.” the girl nodded after looking at it.

“May I see that?” Aria asked.

“Mhm.” the girl replied and handed Aria the magazine. Aria glanced over the story although she had already heard it a million times in the past couple of days. Had she read it closer, she would’ve realized that the magazine had added quite a few obscure facts to the story she had not heard of.

“Wow.” Aria beamed, “He found the chamber of secrets, stabbed the basilisk, and saved Ginny Weasley.”

“Yes, he is quite heroic.” the girl replied simply. It did not seem like the girl didn’t want to talk to Aria but it did not seem like she did either.

“I wish that were me.” Aria said handing the Quibbler back to the girl.

“You wish to stab a basilisk?” the girl asked, starting to seem more interested in the conversation.

“No, I wish I was the heroic one.” Aria said, shyly, “I wish I was brave.” She had never really shared that with anyone. Why then, did she just share it with someone she had only just met?

“You-” the blonde girl began.

“I’m a Gryffindor, I know.” Aria interrupted, “I’m supposed to be brave.”

“Actually,” the girl said, “I was going to say you have a loose thread on your shirt.” Aria felt her face turn pink and she looked down and pulled the thread off her t-shirt.

“Oh.” Aria tried to pass this off with a giggle, “I just feel like I may have been sorted into the wrong house, you know?”

“Well,” the girl, whom Aria had only just met said in a dreamy voice, “maybe what house you’re put in isn’t based on who you are but who you have the potential to become.”

Aria sat back in her chair and thought about this, “I’ve never looked at it that way.”

“Don’t worry about what other people are doing.” the girl said with a smile, “Be the hero of your own story.”

“Thanks-” Aria started.

“Luna Lovegood.” the blonde girl said.

Aria could not hide that she connected the dots in her head. “You’re Loony-I mean…” Aria said stopping herself.

“I know what you were going to say.” Luna said with a smile, “I don’t mind it.”

“I’m sorry, Luna.” Aria replied, “You aren’t at all what people say about you.”

“People can say what they like.” Luna said simply, “It really doesn’t bother me.”

“I’m Aria Ashborn, by the way.” Aria said, admiring the way that Luna was proud of who she was. *

“What an interesting necklace.” Hermione said, and Luna ran her fingers around the strange pendant at the end of her long necklace of butterbeer corks.

“It's a charm, actually.” she said before leaning in, “Keeps away the Nargles.” Hermione looked confused, which was rare. “Nice to see you again, Aria. Got rid of the glasses I see. Do you miss them?”

“No, not really.” Aria replied though she felt a bit guilty that she hadn’t really talked to Luna at all last year, “Nice to see you too, Luna.” Harry hadn’t known Aria used to wear glasses. He realized, there were quite a bit of things about Aria he didn’t know and he had been so wrapped up in himself and the Order, that she had neglected her a bit. It was easy to just be annoyed with her just as he was annoyed with Ron and Hermione, who were almost constantly bickering.

“Hungry.” Luna said as the carriage started to leave towards the castle, “I hope there's pudding.”

“What's a Nargle?” Aria heard Ron whisper.

“No idea.” Hermione quite loudly whispered back.


	8. Professor Umbridge

“Good evening, children.” Dumbledore said in a ringing voice as the first years sat down after being sorted into their houses. Aria sat at the Gryffindor table between Ron and Hermione. On the other side of Ron, sat Harry and across from Harry sat Sir Nicholas. Previous to Dumbledore’s call for attention, many of the ghosts had been zooming up and down the Great Hall. Aria suspected that many of them did not want to stop and see the food because it would make them feel bad that they couldn’t eat it. The food, however, was always delightful (and Ron’s favorite part). Aria would never tell her own mother this, but it was much better than the food her mother made. 

This year, the sky above the students was enchanted with a deep, dark blue, starless sky. Aria remembered how it looked last year, at Cedric’s memorial, where just the rafters of the Great Hall could be seen. At the teacher’s table, the usual were seated, except for a few things. Aria noticed again, that Hagrid was absent and she didn’t know why but these tended to worry her. Also, at the far end of the table sat a woman in bright pink. Aria didn’t have time to analyze her as Dumbledore commanded her attention.

“Now, we have two changes in staffing this year.” Dumbledore said. He worse midnight blue robes and his half-moon spectacles, “We're pleased to welcome back Professor Grubbly-Plank who'll be taking Care Of Magical Creatures while Professor Hagrid Is on temporary leave.” Harry, Hermione, and Ron all shared a quick glance. “We also wish to welcome our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Professor Dolores Umbridge. And I'm sure you'll all join me in wishing the professor good luck.” The students clapped as Dumbledore gestured to the woman in pink. She seemed to be a short, plump woman compared to McGonagall, who she was sitting beside. Aria could not tell how many chins the woman had or whether or not she had a neck. They all seemed to blend together. She had short curly hair, and bangs that were whispered to the side by a tiny black bow.

“Now, as usual, our caretaker, Mr. Filch, has asked me to remind you…” Dumbledore continued.

“She was at my hearing. She works for Fudge.” Harry said, referring to Professor Umbridge. 

“Hem Hem.” said Umbridge, rudely interrupting Dumbledore.

“Thank you, headmaster, for those kind words of welcome.” she said in a high pitched voice. She stood up from her seat at the long teacher’s table. When she did, Aria could see that the pink in her outfit did not stop at the ghastly, knit, pink cardigan she wore but she was also wearing a darker pink dress underneath with matching heels.

“And how lovely to see all your bright, happy faces smiling up at me.” Umbridge continued, stepping directly in front of Dumbledore’s podium which she was about the same height of, “I'm sure we're all going to be very good friends. The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. Although each headmaster has brought something new to this historic school, progress for the sake of progress must be discouraged. Let us preserve what must be preserved, perfect what can be perfected, and prune practices that ought to be prohibited.”

“Thank you, Professor Umbridge.” Dumbledore said, leading an applause for her. 

“What's it mean?” Aria asked Hermione, who had not been clapping. Harry and Ron leaned in for this answer as well.

“It means the Ministry's interfering at Hogwarts.” Hermione replied.

Later that evening, the older Gryffindor students had gotten quickly reacquainted with the common room. Hermione and Aria were at the fireplace discussing classes. Hermione’s electives were Ancient Ruins and Arithmancy while Aria had opted to take Divination. Hermione was petting her ginger cat, Crookshanks. Next to them, a group of Gryffindors had formed. They were all reading the Daily Prophet and when Harry entered, they all stared at him, as if they had just been talking about him. Aria looked to see that Harry was on the cover of the Prophet.

“Dean, Seamus. Good holiday?” Harry asked, obviously having seen the paper.

“All right.” Dean nodded, “Better than Seamus', anyway.” Seamus stood up, angrily.

“Me mum didn't want me to come back this year.” Seamus said, slamming the paper down on the table.

“Why not?” Harry asked, even though he knew the answer.

“Let me see. Because of you.” Seamus sneered, “The Daily Prophet's been saying a lot of things about you and Dumbledore.”

“What, your mum believes them?”

“Nobody was there the night Cedric died.” Seamus said. The mention of Cedric, made her stomach drop. 

“I guess you should read the Prophet, then, like your stupid mother.” Harry said and Hermione gave Aria a look that told her not to interfere.

“Don't you talk about my mother!” Seamus shouted as the other Gryffindor’s watched in silence.

“I'll have a go at anyone that calls me a liar!” Harry shouted, taking a step towards Seamus. Ron had just come down the stairs behind Harry.

“What's going on?” Ron asked although there was no way he couldn’t hear the shouting from the dormitory.

“He's mad, is what's going on. Do you believe the rubbish he's come out with about You-Know-Who?”

“Yeah. I do.” Ron said, standing beside his friend. “Has anyone else got a problem with Harry?” No one answered. Harry's ears were turning red as he turned and rushed up the stairs, followed by Ron. Aria watched as Seamus sat back down next to Dean.

“What?” Seamus asked as everyone was still staring at him. At this, the rest of the Gryffindors slowly eased back into their separate conversations.  
\---------------------------------------------  
Monday evening, Harry, Ron, Aria, and Hermione walked up the stairs towards their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class of the year. Aria had a mix of emotion for this class, always. She never knew what to expect since the curriculum and the teacher was never consistent. However, she was still excited since she always enjoyed at DADA and she somewhat excelled at it. She took a seat next to Hermione on the right side of the classroom while Ron and Harry sat towards the front. 

“Good morning, children.” said the toad-faced woman from behind the class. She pointed her wand at the chalkboard and wrote what she said as she said it, “Ordinary Wizarding Level examinations. O-W-Ls. More commonly known as OWLs.” She made her way towards the front of the class, having ceased writing, “Study hard and you will be rewarded. Fail to do so, and the consequences may be severe.” She tapped her wand at the pile of books behind her and they magically passed themselves out to the students, “Your previous instruction in this subject has been disturbingly uneven. But you'll be pleased to know, from now on you will be following a carefully structured, Ministry-approved course of defensive magic.” Aria looked at the textbook in front of her. It was a thick but basic looking brown book entitled Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard. Hermione had begun to flip through the book from the moment it hit the table and she now raised her hand. 

“Yes?” Umbridge asked in a sugary voice.

“There's nothing in here about using defensive spells?” Hermione asked, a crinkle between her brows.

“Using spells?” Umbridge giggled, “Well, I can't imagine why you would need to use spells in my classroom.”

“We're not gonna use magic?” Aria asked, highly disappointed and confused.

“You'll be learning about defensive spells in a secure, risk-free way.” Umbridge replied to the whole class.

“What use is that?” Harry asked, and Aria could see that he was frustrated, “If we're attacked, it won't be risk-free.”

“Students will raise their hands when they speak in my class.” Umbridge said, turning and not facing Harry as she walked to the stand in the front of the chalkboard. She continued, “It is the view of the Ministry that a theoretical knowledge will be sufficient to get you through your examinations which, after all, is what school is all about.”

“And how's theory supposed to prepare us for what's out there?” Harry asked, both elbows on the table.

“There is nothing out there, dear.” Umbridge said, “Who do you imagine wants to attack children like yourself?”

“Oh, I don't know. Maybe Lord Voldemort.” Harry said in a mock thoughtful voice. There were murmurs from around the classroom and Umbridge’s smile wavered.

“Now, let me make this quite plain.” she said, regaining her smile, “You have been told that a certain dark wizard is at large once again. This is a lie.”

“It's not a lie.” Ron chimed in, “Harry saw him. Harry fought him.”

“So he says.” Umbridge said, still smiling with an effort and staring Ron down, “So he lies and I will not tolerate lying.”

“Harry’s not lying.” Aria said, and Umbridge turned to her. “You weren’t there. How could you possibly know?” 

“Quiet, both of you!” Umbridge shouted, losing her happy smiley mantra. She regained herself and went so she was standing directly in front of Harry. “Apologize, at once for disrupting the class.” Harry said nothing although he wanted nothing more than to shout at her. “Very well. Detention, Mr. Potter.”

“So according to you, Cedric Diggory dropped dead of his own accord?” Harry shouted.

“Cedric Diggory's death was a tragic accident.” Umbridge said, not just to Harry, but to the whole class.

“It was murder!” Harry shouted, not being able to hold back any longer, “Voldemort killed him! You must know that-”

“Enough!” Umbridge shouted, “Enough. See me later, Mr. Potter. My office.”


	9. Detention with Dolores

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry comes back from detention and Aria finds that Umbridge's methods are not so kind. Despite Harry telling her not to medal, she can't help herself.

The next day after dinner the Gryffindor common room was full of studying students with the exception of Harry, who was in detention, and Fred and George who were not studying but experimenting. Rumor has it, they planned to open their own Joke Shop once out of Hogwarts.

“Skiving Snackboxes.” Fred called his new invention, showing it to a bunch of first years.

“Sweets that make you ill.” George explained, handing the ‘treat’ to a small, blonde boy, “Get out of class whenever you like. Obtain hours of pleasure from unprofitable boredom. Care for another?”

“She wants us to read three chapters in one night and write an essay on it?” Aria asked Hermione as they sat by the fireplace, flipping through books and pages of notes.

“It’s ridiculous.” Hermione replied, “There’s no point in even taking this class if we aren’t going to learn how to defend ourselves properly.”

“It makes my blood boil that she’s got Harry wasting away in detention for speaking the truth.” Aria said, closing her notes in the book and tossing it on the floor, “I can’t imagine Dumbledore will stand for this.”

“I don’t think Dumbledore has much of a choice right now.” said Hermione, “The Ministry is over his head.”

“Where’s Ron?” Aria asked, looking around the room.

“Dunno.” Hermione replied, “Maybe meeting Harry when he gets out of detention?” However, just as she said that Harry entered the common room without Ron and took a seat between Hermione and Aria on the couch. He looked slightly aggravated and not at all in the mood to do all the homework he had been assigned.

“I’m guessing that’s not true.” Aria replied. Harry grabbed for the book Aria tossed on the floor and pulled his sleeve down over his left hand as he did so.

“What's wrong with your hand?” Aria asked.

“Nothing.” Harry replied, showing Aria his normal, right hand and not meeting her eyes.

“The other hand.” Aria said, now worried since she knew Harry was lying to her. She grabbed his left hand and pulled down the sleeve. Scratched into his hand were the words: I MUST NOT TELL LIES. It looked to have been dug in, multiple times, and fairly recently since the words were still red with blood.

“You've got to tell Dumbledore.” Hermione said, examining the hand as well.

 

“No.” Harry said, pulling his hand back from Hermione, “Dumbledore's got enough on his mind right now. I don't want to give Umbridge the satisfaction.”

“Harry, the woman's torturing you.” Aria replied.

“Harry, you've got to report this.” Hermione said, leaning in to make sure no one else was hearing their conversation, “It's perfectly simple. You're being-”

“No, it's not.” Harry snapped with asperity, “Hermione, whatever this is, it's not simple. You don't understand.”

“Then help us to.” Aria said softly, but it was too late. Harry handed Aria her book before going upstairs to the dormitory.

Aria knew Harry didn’t want her saying anything about detention but Aria couldn’t just sit by an watch Umbridge treat Harry like that or any other students for that matter. She thought about it that night and weighed her options. If she told but kept Harry anonymous, then maybe Umbridge would get fired and they could get a new professor. If she didn’t, Harry and any other students who got detention would be treated badly, not to mention they would continue learning nothing useful in DADA. So the following day, after Transfiguration, Aria told Hermione she would catch up with her later.

“How nice of you to stop by Miss Ashborn but I’m afraid I can’t chat, I have quite a lot of essays to grade.” Professor McGonagall said from behind her desk when Aria entered.

“It’s about Professor Umbridge.” Aria said.

“Have a biscuit.” McGonagall said, dropping her quill and offering a plate of biscuits to Aria as she sat down. Aria took a biscuit but did not eat it.

Aria chose her words carefully, “A friend of mine had detention with her last night and I have some concerns with her punishment.”

“Go on.” McGonagall said, hands folded on her desk. Aria signed and told McGonagall the whole story being careful not to mention Harry’s name or any detail that could lead McGonagall to believe that it was Harry.

“What student?” McGonagall asked, unsurprisingly.

“I...I don’t wish to say, Professor.” Aria said, looking at her shoelaces.

“Very well.” McGonagall said, “I appreciate you coming to Miss Ashborn.” She then went back to grading her papers. Was that it? Aria stood up and waited to see if McGonagall would say anything else and when the quill continued to scratch, Aria exited the classroom.

Aria heard nothing about this all week. She wondered if McGonagall had just dismissed her claim. Was it because she didn’t give a name? Maybe Harry was right and McGonagall’s hands were tied. Had she told Dumbledore? Had she confronted Umbridge? All Aria’s questions were answered that Friday at lunch. Aria, Hermione, Ginny, and Ron were all eating at the table. Harry had been keeping to himself for the past few days since he had been having detention every day. It crossed Aria’s mind that maybe he found out that she had told McGonagall and was mad at her.

“Do you ever stop eating?” Hermione asked, revolted, as Ron shoved a piece of chicken into his mouth.

“What?” Ron asked, mouth full, “I'm hungry.” Just then, Harry walked into the Great Hall.

“Harry.” Aria said with a smile.

“Can I join you?” Harry asked. Aria nodded. Just then, Hermione gasped, her face hidden by the Daily Prophet.

“What is it?” Harry asked briskly.

“Listen to this,” Hermione said, “‘Sources report that none other than the notorious mass-murder, Sirius Black, is hiding out somewhere in London.’”

Harry’s heart skipped a beat. “They don’t know where do they?” he asked quickly.

Before Hermione could answer, her and Harry noticed a large number of students rushing out of the Great Hall towards the entryway to the Hall. Aria, Harry, Hermione, Ginny, and Ron followed to see what was going on. When they arrived, they found the students all gathered around Umbridge and McGonagall. They appeared to be having a row.

“Pardon me, professor, but what exactly are you insinuating?” Umbridge asked, still her creepy, cheery self.

“I am merely requesting that when it comes to my students you conform to the prescribed disciplinary practices.” McGonagall replied and Aria felt her face become hot.

“So silly of me, but it sounds as if you're questioning my authority in my own classroom Minerva.” Umbridge said, standing on a stair higher than McGonagall as to appear taller than her.

“Not at all, Dolores,” McGonagall said, stepping up so that she was on the same stair. “merely your medieval methods.”

“I am sorry, dear.” Toadface said with a smile, “But to question my practices is to question the Ministry and by extension, the minister himself. I am a tolerant woman but the one thing I will not stand for is disloyalty.”

McGonagall stepped down, astounded, “Disloyalty?”

“Things at Hogwarts are far worse than I feared.” Umbridge said, addressing not only McGonagall but the rest of the students. “Cornelius will want to take immediate action.”

McGonagall and Aria locked eyes for a moment but Aria hastily dropped her gaze. The students dispersed and instead of coming back to lunch, Harry went back to the common room. Aria wondered if he was mad her but he said nothing on the subject whatsoever after the fact.


	10. Practice for the Prefect

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Much to Aria's surprise, Ron made the Quidditch team! However, when Aria and Hermione go down to the pitch to watch the practice, they find Cho Chang there to support Harry. That's when Aria starts feeling strange, almost like she's jealous of Cho...

That night, Harry, Hermione, and Aria sat on the lumpy couch by the crackling fire. Harry and Aria were reading the assigned chapter in Defensive Magical Theory while Hermione was reading next week’s assigned chapters. Suddenly, Ron came through the door and cheerfully stood in front of them. He smiled, not saying anything, seemingly waiting for their attention. They all looked up.

“What’s got you so happy?” Harry asked, which is what Ron had been waiting for.

“I’ve made the Quidditch team!” Ron exclaimed, a smile on his lips.

“Ron, that’s great!” Harry said and Aria looked to see Hermione smiling. “Wait, when did this happen?”

“You were in detention.” Ron explained. Aria was not happy though she didn’t really know why. “I did it on impulse, really. I figured, since I got my new broom, I might as well. I didn’t want to tell any of you in case I didn’t make it.”

“Wait, Ron,” Aria said, a bit disappointed, “What about our deal?”

“I’m sorry.” He said genuinely, “I still have to try out again next year though.”

“Alright.” Aria replied. “But don’t expect me to do your homework for you.”

The next day, Gryffindor was scrimmaging against the Slytherin and so Aria and Hermione decided to attend the practice and sat down in the cold bleachers. It was breezy as October would soon settle in and so, they turned their collars up against the cold. There were many Slytherin watching from the Slytherin side.

Ron, wasn’t doing too well in his new role as keeper and Aria felt bad for Ron. Anytime he’d make a mistake, the Slytherin would jeer and shout rotten things at him. This caused Ron’s confidence to severely decline throughout the scrimmage and he made more and more mistakes. Harry, however, was doing quite good.

As Hermione and Aria watched, Ron let another Quaffle into the hoops, Cho Chang came and sat behind Hermione and Aria. Cho was a very pretty Asian girl in her sixth year. She had long, dark hair that Aria knew Harry was very fond of. According to Ron, Harry seemed to have developed a crush on her.

“Hi Hermione. Hi Aria.” she said in a sweet voice. Her cheeks were a bit rosy from the wind against her flawless skin.

“Hello Cho.” Hermione said with a smile.

“Hi.” Aria said simply. She was not friends with Cho nor did she like her very much. Although, she didn’t really have a legitimate reason as to why.

“I wish the Slytherins weren’t being so rude to Ron.” Hermione said with a sigh, “He’s still getting the hang of things.”

“I know.” Aria said before shouting across the field at the Slytherins, “Oh shut it!”

“That won’t do much good.” said Hermione. Just then, Harry flew past, his hands inches away from the snitch.

“Harry’s doing quite well isn’t he?” Cho pointed out, not taking her eyes off of Harry.

“Cho, Ravenclaw isn’t even practicing.” Aria said, coolly “Why are here?”

“Aria,” Hermione whispered to her friend, “cool it.”

“Just wondering.” Aria shrugged.

“I’m here to watch my Gryffindor friends.” Cho smiled. Harry zoomed past again. “Go Harry!” Harry smiled and waved when he saw Cho and then continued after the snitch.

“Nice one Harry!” Aria called as if cheering was a competition. Just then, Ron threw a bludger to Katie Bell. However, it hit her straight in the nose and she began to bleed. The scrimmage took a timeout as the team huddled around Katie.


	11. The Hogwarts High Inquisitor

On Monday, Aria made her way up the silver ladder to Divination. She planned to talk to Ron about the Quidditch practice but she ended up arriving too early for Ron to be there. Instead, Aria made her way over to Harry, who was slumped over at the circular table as he flipped through his dream journal without interest.

“You did well at Quidditch practice yesterday.” Aria said with a smile.

“Thanks, but we got crushed.” Harry replied, “Wait, did you leave early or something? I didn’t see you there.” Aria sighed. It’s not like I wasn’t sitting right there when you waved to Cho Chang she thought, sarcastically to herself.

“Did you see Cho?” Aria asked disappointingly.

“What?” Harry asked, having not heard her. His mind had wandered as he tried to come up with a false dream to write in his dream journal before class started.

“Nevermind.”

“Hey.” Ron said, walking past Aria and sitting down at his spot next to Harry.

“Hi Ron.” Aria said, “I’m sorry the Slytherin were being so mean to you the other day. I’m happy you made the team. You deserve it.”

“Thanks.” Ron said, though he still looked deflated.

“Good morning students.” Professor Trelawney said in her usual mystical voice. Aria took this as her cue to take her seat. Trelawney was an untidy woman. Her hair was curly and wacky and her glasses were huge making her eyes appear very large as well. She talked often with her arms and whenever they moved, her shawl would whisk over her shoulders and the many beads attached to different parts of her outfit would jangle.

She continued, “I’m very excited about today’s lesson. We will be continuing dream interpretation. It’s a most important means of divination. For, the inner eye sees sights to which the outer eye is blind.” She bumped into a table as she said this, knocking a book off, and the class laughed. As she went down to pick it up, Professor Umbridge entered in a blur of pink. Now that she was High Inquisitor at Hogwarts, she had been checking up on teachers. This is the first class Aria had witnessed this in.

“What are you doing here?” Trelawney asked, standing up.

“Don’t mind me, dear.” Umbridge said with a sugary voice. She held a pink, floral clipboard and a pink, fluffy quill. “You see, Professor Trelawney, isn’t it? In addition to my teaching, the ministry has asked me to be an informal observer here at Hogwarts. Cornelius’s eyes and ears as it were. Nothing to worry about whatsoever. Please, do go on. I’m just a fly on the wall.”

“Oh yes.” Trelawney replied, a bit flustered as Umbridge went to stand in the corner. “Well erm...dream-”

“Just one question, dear.” Umbridge interrupted, “You’ve been in this post how long exactly?”

Trelawney thought for a moment, “Nearly 16 years.”

“Quite a period.” Umbridge replied, her quill scratching on the notes on her clipboard, “And it was Dumbledore who appointed you?”

“He did.” Trelawney replied and when Umbridge didn’t say anything she assumed it meant she could go on and Umbridge nodded. “Dream interpretation-”

“Just one more thing,” Umbridge interrupted again, “if it isn’t too much a bother. Could you please predict something for me?”

“I’m sorry?” Trelawney asked. Now, Aria, Harry, and Ron knew Trelawney was an old fraud and her class itself was not their favorite, but they couldn’t help but feel bad for her. They absolutely despised Umbridge which made it a no-brainer who to root for in this situation.

“Predict something.” Umbridge continued and Trelawney's already gorging eyes widened, “Well surely you’re not surprised I asked. You would have foreseen it.”

“The inner eye does not see upon command.” Trelawney offered up as an excuse when the, in reality, Harry, Ron, and Aria knew she just couldn’t.

“Come now.” Umbridge said, talking down to Trelawney even though she was significantly shorter, “One, teensy little prophecy? No? Pity.” Umbridge wrote something on her clipboard before turning to leave.

“No, wait. Wait, no.” Trelawney called after her desperately, “I think I do see something. Yes, I do. Something dark. You are in grave danger.”

“Lovely.” Umbridge replied.

It was only a few days later that Umbridge would call Trelawney out in front of the entire school. Aria and Ginny were in the courtyard watching Fred and George as they played with a few Zonko Products with Lee Jordan when Mr. Filch tossed Trelawney’s bags in front of them. Umbridge had just sacked her. Trelawney ran after her bags as students began to gather around. Fred, George, Ginny, Lee, and Aria went back to stand with the rest of the students. Trelawney was crying as Umbridge made her way out to the courtyard and approached her.

“Sixteen years I've lived and taught here.” she cried, embarrassed that everyone was looking at her. “Hogwarts is my home. You can't do this.”

“Actually, I can.” Toad-face said with a sinister smile. There was no remorse or regret in her eyes. McGonagall pushed past the students and went to comfort Trelawney “Something you'd like to say?”

“Oh, there are several things I would like to say.” McGonagall replied as she hushed Trelawney. “There, there.” Then, the large doors of Dumbledore’s office could be heard opening with an echo. For the first time since the welcome feast, Dumbledore showed himself.

“Professor McGonagall, might I ask you to escort Sybil back inside?” he told McGonagall in a voice that filled the entire courtyard as he approached Umbridge.

“Sybil, dear. This way.” McGonagall said, helping a weeping Trelawney away from courtyard.

“Thank you!” Trelawney cried to Dumbledore as she went.

“Dumbledore, may I remind you that under the terms of Educational Decree Number-” Umbridge started.

“You have the right to dismiss my teachers.” Dumbledore interrupted, “You do not, however, have the authority to banish them from the grounds. That power remains with the headmaster.”

“For now.” Umbridge said with a smile. Dumbledore’s face could not be read by Aria. Umbridge always looked as if she knew something no one else did.

“Don't you all have studying to do?” Dumbledore called at the students as a way to get them to leave before he turned to go back to his office.

“Professor!” Aria could hear Harry call from behind her. He was pushing past people to get to Dumbledore. “Professor? Professor Dumbledore. Professor! Professor Dumbledore!” Harry called, crossing the courtyard.  
\---------------------------------------------  
“That foul, evil, old gargoyle.” Hermione complained back in the common room that night. Everyone was in bed except for Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Aria. “We're not learning how to defend ourselves. We're not learning how to pass our OWLs. She's taking over the entire school.”

“We have to do something.” Aria agreed, standing up, “I’m tired of just sitting here watching it all unfold.”

Harry turned up the radio which until now had been at a low volume. The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge was speaking. “Security has been and will remain the Ministry's top priority. Furthermore, we have convincing evidence that these disappearances are the work of notorious mass murderer Sirius Black.”

Harry scoffed at this. Suddenly, a voice came from the fireplace. “Harry.” it said. The friends looked to see Sirius’s head in the fire. It was magically projected into the flames while the real Sirius was at Grimmauld Place. 

“Sirius. What are you doing here?” Harry asked as the four of them rushed to the fire and knelt beside it. 

“Answering your letter.” he replied in hushed tones, “You said you were worried about Umbridge. What's she doing? Training you to kill half-breeds?”

“She's not letting us use magic at all." Harry replied.

“Well, I'm not surprised.” said Sirius, unfazed, “The latest intelligence is that Fudge doesn't want you trained in combat.”

“Combat?” Ron asked, “What does he think, we're forming some sort of wizard army?”

“That's exactly what he thinks.” replied Sirius, “That Dumbledore is assembling his own forces to take on the Ministry. He's becoming more paranoid by the minute. The others wouldn't want me telling you this, Harry...but things aren't going at all well with the Order. Fudge is blocking the truth at every turn and these disappearances are just how it started before. Voldemort is on the move.”

“Well, what can we do?” Aria asked. Before Sirius could answer, footsteps were heard from up in the dormitories.

“Someone's coming. I'm sorry I can't be of more help. But for now, at least, it looks like you're on your own.” and with that, Sirius was gone.

Hermione stood up and looked out the window. It was beginning to get chilly outside and the wind was howling. 

“He really is out there, isn't he?” she said, nervously. Harry and Ron stood up as well but Aria opted to stay by the fire. “We've got to be able to defend ourselves. And if Umbridge refuses to teach us how, we need someone who will.” She turned to Harry.


	12. In the Hog's Head

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *indicates flashbacks*

*“My whole life I expected to be a Hufflepuff as well and then out of nowhere, I’m sorted into Gryffindor. I’m still not sure why.” Aria said, eyes downcast.

“Are you talking about bravery again?” Cedric asked, his deep grey eyes smiling back at her “You know, bravery doesn’t always mean slaying a dragon.” Cedric could tell she wasn’t really buying it, “For example, you are fearlessly who you are.”

Aria met his eyes, “Thanks. I think this year I’ve really started to be myself.”

“It looks good on you.” Cedric replied, his voice seemed to echo. One moment they were eating lunch across from each other. Everything was perfect. Cedric was alive. There was no war. Aria knew no pain in her life. Then, the scene changed from the Great Hall to the Quidditch field right before the third task.

“Be brave.” Aria said, looking into Cedric’s grey eyes.

“I’ll think of you.” he said and their lips met. She watched him go into the maze in slow motion. “I’ll think of you” and “Be brave” were played on repeat. Suddenly, she was no longer standing on the Quidditch field but she was up in the stands. The conversation still repeating.

Then, in a blink of an eye, Cedric was back with Harry, and Cedric was dead. Mr. Diggory cried, “That’s my boy!” The world around her grew out of focus as the dialogues kept repeating and layering over themselves.

“Be brave!”

“That’s my boy!”

“I’ll think of you!”* 

Aria opened her eyes with a start. She was in her bed in the girl’s dormitory. She then came to the realization that it had all been a dream, or a nightmare, rather. She felt the sweat on her forehead. It had been a while since she had a nightmare about Cedric and she thought she they were finally done with as she was accepting his death more and more. Perhaps, there was still part of her subconscious that felt guilty for trying to move on from Cedric even though she knew it’s what he would’ve wanted. Hermione was sitting on the edge of her own bed.

“Are you alright?” she asked, bringing Aria out of her thoughts.

“Spectacular.” Aria said sarcastically.  
\----------------------------------------------------  
“This is mad.” Harry said as the four friends walked the cold, October frost of Hogsmeade. It was not snow, but frost. It had taken some convincing, but Hermione finally got Harry to agree to form a group to learn Defense Against the Dark Arts that Harry would teach. “Who'd wanna be taught by me? I'm a nutter, remember?”

“Look on the bright side: you can't be any worse than old toad face.” Ron replied and Aria giggled.

“Thanks, Ron.” Harry said, sarcastically. 

“I'm here for you, mate.”

“Who's supposed to be meeting us, then?” Harry asked.

“Just a couple of people.” Hermione replied as they walked into a pub called the Hog’s Head. It was a small space with only a few people sitting down. A goat could be heard in the distance.

“Lovely spot." Ron said sarcastically.

“It’s a less popular spot which means we’re less likely to be seen here.” Aria clarified. The four of them took a seat in the back after buying butterbeers and waited for more people to arrive. People started arriving in pairs and then in twos or threes. Aria didn’t think anyone entirely knew why they were meeting. Amongst the people who had come to the meeting were Fred, George, Ginny, Luna, Cho and a friend, Neville, Dean, Lavender Brown, Parvati and Padma Patil, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, Angelina Johnson, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbot, three Ravenclaws boys, Michael Corner, Zacharias Smith, and Lee Jordan. This was much more than Hermione had predicted to show up.

“Hi.” Hermione said. She stood up nervously. The group was crowded around Hermione and Harry while Aria and Ron sat with Ginny and her boyfriend Michael Corner. “So you all know why we're here. We need a teacher. A proper teacher. One who's had experience defending themselves against the Dark Arts.”

“Why?” Zacharias Smith asked, rudely.

“Why? Because You-Know-Who's back, you tosspot.” Ron fired back.

“So he says.” Zacharias replied.

“So Dumbledore says.” Aria said, coolly.

“So Dumbledore says because he says.” Zacharias continued, “The point is, where's the proof?”

“If Potter could tell us more about how Diggory got killed…” Michael Corner started. Harry noticed Aria shift uncomfortably in her seat at the mention of Cedric.

“I'm not gonna talk about Cedric, so if that's why you're here, clear out now.” Harry said, standing up before turning to Hermione, “Come on, Hermione. They're here because they think I'm some sort of freak.”

“Harry-” Aria started in protest.

“Is it true you can produce a Patronus Charm?” Luna asked, her wand behind her ear. Harry sat back down. When he didn’t answer, Hermione answered for him.

“Yes. I've seen it.” said Hermione.

“Blimey, Harry.” said Dean, “I didn't know you could do that.”

“And he killed a basilisk, with the sword in Dumbledore's office.” Aria added.

“It's true.” Ginny confirmed.

“Third year, he fought off about a hundred Dementors at once.” Ron said, grasping more and more people’s attention.

“Last year, he really did fight off You-Know-Who in the flesh.” Hermione added.

“Wait. Look, it all sounds great when you say it like that but the truth is, most  
of that was just luck.” Harry said, standing up, “I didn't know what I was doing half the time. I nearly always had help.”

“He's just being modest.” Hermione clarified.

“No, Hermione, I'm not.” Harry snapped, “Facing this stuff in real life is not like school. In school, if you make a mistake, you can just try again tomorrow. But out there when you're a second away from being murdered or watching a friend die right before your eyes...You don't know what that's like.”

The room was silent. No one knew quite how to follow what Harry had just said. Harry noticed Aria’s gaze. She, like many others, hadn’t really understood what Harry had been through. “You're right, Harry, we don't.” Aria said, “That's why we need your help. Because if we're going to have any chance at beating...Voldemort…”

“He's really back.” Colin Creevey said what many others were thinking. Harry nodded.

“And we need to be properly taught to defend ourselves against him.” Aria replied.

Hermione stood back up and put a piece of paper out on the table with a quill next to it she had enchanted so that if someone tells Umbridge, they would know who. “We’ll be meeting regularly. You can sign up on this piece of parchment. Remember that by doing so, you agree not to tell Umbridge or anyone else what we’re up to.”

Ron and Aria were the first to sign their names, then Ginny. Eventually, a line had formed to sign up on the piece of parchment and after they signed up, people began leaving. Harry found himself surprised by how happy this was making him. After Luna left, Cho was next in line. Aria found it impressive that Cho could sign her name without even looking. This is because she and Harry were looking at each other smiling.

“Hello Harry.” she said in her sweet voice.

“Cho I-” Harry started.

“Harry, could you pass me my gloves?” Aria asked interrupting Harry and Cho. Harry did as Aria asked and when he looked back up, Cho had left and Fred and George were signing the paper. Aria felt a sense of satisfaction having drawn Harry’s attention away from Cho, yet she didn’t know why. Harry was disappointed that he didn’t get to continue to talk to Cho.  
\--------------------------------------------  
After the meeting, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Aria, Fred, George, and Ginny made their way across the bridge back to Hogwarts. Hermione seemed to be particularly excited about the outcome of the meeting.

“Right. First, we need to find a place to practice where Umbridge won't find out.” Harry said as they walked.

“The Shrieking Shack.” Ginny suggested.

“It's too small.”

“Forbidden Forest?” Aria suggested.

“Not bloody likely.” said Ron.

“Harry, what happens if Umbridge does find out?” Ginny asked.

“Who cares? I mean, it's sort of exciting, isn't it, breaking the rules?” Hermione said, smiling.

“Who are you and what have you done with Hermione?” Ron asked and Aria giggled.

“Anyway, at least we know one positive thing that came from today.” Hermione said.

“What's that?” Harry asked.

“Cho couldn't take her eyes off you, could she?” replied Hermione and Harry smiled. It’s unfortunate that a smile had been so rare for Harry lately.

“Cho?” Aria asked. Her ears became hot though she didn’t know why.

“Haven’t you noticed Harry’s enormous crush on her?” Hermione asked.

“I have.” Aria replied, “I just heard she was interested in Dean Thomas.” That wasn’t true. Why did she say that?

“That’s not what I heard.” Ginny said.

“I could be wrong.” Aria shrugged.

“Right.” Harry continued, “Over the next few days, we should each come up with a couple of possibilities for places we can practice. We've got to make sure, wherever it is, there's no chance she can find us.” 

“Will do, Harry.” Aria said as the group reached the end of the bridge but before Aria could catch up with them, Ginny pulled her back.

“Hang on.” she said when the others were out of earshot, “Do you have something against Cho or something?”

“No, of course not.” Aria replied.

“Then what’s the matter?” Ginny asked, “You seem to be acting strange.”

“I’m fine.” Aria said and hurried to catch up towards the group. The truth is, she was not fine. She knew and Ginny had begun to catch on that Aria was jealous of Cho’s hold on Harry.


	13. Dumbledore's Army

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dumbledore's Army is up and running and Harry pays an awful lot of attention to Cho during the meetings which sets Aria's teeth on edge.

The following week, Aria was swarmed with homework. She had another chapter to read for Defense Against the Dark Arts, she had to practice a Silencing Charm for Charms, there was an essay for potions, dream journal for Divination, and another two essay for Transfiguration and History of Magic. She, however, couldn't concentrate whatsoever on any of it. She was too concerned with trying to find a place for the group to practice Defense Against the Dark Arts in secret. This was becoming harder since Umbridge had banned all clubs, teams, and student organizations unless they got permission to continue.

On Wednesday, Aria sat down to dinner, next to Ginny. Ron was shoving chicken and sausage links into his mouth. It was as if he couldn’t decide on which to eat first so he decided to eat them both at the same time. Aria noticed that Harry’s gaze was over her shoulder towards the Ravenclaw table where Cho Chang was inevitably sitting. Aria tucked the red streak of her hair behind her ear. Just then, Neville ran to the Gryffindor table straight for Harry.

 

“Harry,” he said, panting, “I think I’ve found a place.”

“Hush Neville!” Ginny warned.

“Right.” Neville whispered, “I think you better come see this.” Neville began to explain in a hushed whisper that he had been keeping away from Crabbe and Goyle, who had been taunting him when he stumbled upon a room that just appeared. Hermione, having read about the room, was very zealous about the idea of using it and she and Ginny spread the word to the rest of the members of their club to meet there at 8 o’clock. After dinner, Ginny, Harry, Hermione, Aria, Ron, and Neville all made their way to the room.

The six of them entered the room and shut the door cautiously behind them as if Filch or Umbridge would pop out from around the corner any second. Aria could not believe how spacious the room was. There were several cushions on the ground where the students could sit. There was a bookshelf in the corner with books containing knowledge on defensive magic. There was a silver knight-looking dummy next to the large fireplace. In the corner opposite the bookshelf was a large mirror. Aside from the large door, they had just entered, there was no doors or windows.

“You've done it, Neville!” Hermione exclaimed, “You found the Room of Requirement!”

“The what?” Ron asked, screwing his face up after hearing the name.

“It's also known as the Come and Go Room.” Hermione explained, excitedly, “The Room of Requirement only appears when a person has real need of it. And it's always equipped for the seeker's needs.”

“So say you really needed the toilet…” Ron started.

“Charming, Ronald.” Hermione replied, revolted, “But, yes, that is the general idea.”

“It's brilliant.” Harry said, “It's like Hogwarts wants us to fight back.” Not too soon after he said this, club members started filing in little by little and took seats on the cushions around the room. Aria, Neville, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione did so as to give Harry the floor.

“Alright.” Harry called, gathering everyone’s attention as they had been chatting, “so let’s break up into pairs shall we?”

“Would you like to be my partner, Aria?” Luna asked as Aria stood up. Aria, who had rather hoped to be paired with Hermione, didn’t want to hurt Luna’s feelings.

“Sure.” Aria said, “How are you, Luna?”

“Exquisite actually.”Aria waited for Luna to say more or ask her how her day was but Luna just swayed.

“That’s good.” Aria said. Next, Harry had all the pairs stand equal lengths apart from each other as if they were dueling. Hermione was paired with Ron, Ginny with Michael Corner, Cho with her friend Marietta, and Neville found himself without a partner.

“Stunning is one of the most useful spells in your arsenal.” Harry explained, walking between the pairs, “It's a wizard's bread and butter, really. Would anyone like to give it a go?”

“Could I?” Collin asked.

“Sure, why not?” Harry said. The pairs backed up as Collin took his place in front of the fire and Harry opposite of him. “So come on, then, Colin. Give it your best shot.”

“Stupefy!” Collin shouted, flourishing his wand at Harry. In a quick flash of light, Harry was thrown backward but surprisingly, so was Collin.

“Good. Not bad at all, Colin.” Harry said, uncomfortably, as he stood up, “Well done. Anyone else? Ron? Hermione? Excellent.” The group watched as Hermione took Harry’s place in front of the fire and Ron took Collins.

“Don't worry.” Ron said, “I'll go easy on you.”

“Thanks, Ronald.” Hermione said. All the girls cheered on Hermione while most of the boys cheered on Ron. Then, Ron pointed his wand at Hermione and opened his mouth but before he could get any words out Hermione had shouted “Stupefy!” and Ron when flying backward. Aria and a few other girls went up to congratulate Hermione while all the boys laughed and poked fun at Ron.

“I let her do that.” Ron said, having just had his pride hurt, “It's good manners, isn't it? It was completely intentional.”

“Alright, now that you’ve seen it done a few times why don’t you all practice?” Harry said, and Ron and Hermione went back in line with everyone else. “Remember to keep your feet firmly planted so you don’t get thrown back like Collin.” Collin’s face turned pink.

“Are you ready?” Luna asked from across Aria as the partners around them had begun to practice. Stupefy could be heard from all directions and next to Aria, Lavender Brown had been thrown back by Parvati Patil.

“You want to go first?” Aria asked.

“No,” Luna said dreamily, “I don’t fancy hurting you much.”

“It’s alright that’s what we’re supposed to be doing.” Aria said with a smile.

“Stupefy!” Cho shouted at her friend Marietta, next to Aria. Cho had pointed her want hard at her friend, however, merely a few sparks came out and fizzled.

“You’re not flourishing your wand enough.” Harry said, having come up behind Cho. “Here, let me help you.” Aria’s ears grew hot as Harry held Cho’s hand which held her wand and demonstrated the flourish he spoke of.

“That’s much better, thank you.” Cho said and for what seemed like minutes, Harry and Cho were staring into each other’s eyes.

“Ready Luna?” Aria said briskly, determined to show Cho up. “Stupefy!” she shouted flourishing her wand and Luna went flying into the cushion. Aria smirked in satisfaction at her accomplishment although she wasn't sure Luna was quite ready. Aria looked to see if Harry had seen the good job she had done. He hadn’t. He was now in conversation with Cho and had missed the whole thing.  
\----------------------------------------  
“I think that the DA’s going brilliantly, don’t you?” Harry asked as he and Aria walked across the courtyard during a break a few days later. At Ginny’s suggestion, they had decided to call their defense organization Dumbledore’s Army or DA for short. They had had a couple of meetings since and it was now early November and the first snow of the season was lightly falling on the two.

“It’s going quite well.” Aria replied, enjoying this rare alone time with Harry. “I’ve always enjoyed Defense Against the Dark Arts. I know it’s not very nice to say, but it’s also kind of fun defying my parents.”

“How do you mean?” Harry asked.

“Well, mum sent a letter yesterday.” Aria said, sounding annoyed at the memory, “Apparently, Sirius told the rest of the Order about the DA. Mum doesn’t want me doing it. But, I want to. I want to be with all of you, fighting. Not only because it’s right but because…”

“What?” Harry asked and they both stopped walking.

“Nothing, it’s dumb.” Aria said, tucking her strand of red hair behind her ear.

“What is it?” Harry asked and Aria met his almond-shaped green eyes behind his glasses. Had they always been almond shaped? She had never truly paid enough attention and she found herself examining them with great detail.

“I…” she stuttered, before continuing, “I know it’s what Cedric would’ve wanted.”

“Still have nightmares about him?”

“Not as often as I used to but yes.” Aria said grimly, “Do you?”

“I have nightmares, but not about Cedric.” Harry said before a crinkle appeared between his eyebrows as he was remembering, “I keep seeing this door. I don’t know where it is or what it leads to. It’s just a door.”

“That’s strange.” Aria replied.

“I’ve been having a lot of strange feelings lately that I can’t explain.” Harry said and Aria felt warm inside knowing Harry was opening up to her for the first time in a quite a period.

“Yeah…” she said as they began to walk again.

“Anyway, about Cedric…” Harry started. He realized that he had been so caught up with Umbridge, the DA, and the Order that he hadn’t really gotten a chance to talk to Aria alone like this let alone ask her how she felt. “If he were here, he’d be fighting with us. He’d probably be the best.”

“Yeah, he would be.” she said a sad smile on her lips. Harry realized the topic was bringing her sorrow which was not what he had intended to do. Aria realized this as well and felt bad for even turning the conversation this way. After all, she really did want to have a nice conversation with Harry. She always felt happy when she was with him and then she had to go and bring up her dead boyfriend.

“I’m sorry I brought Cedric up.” She said, scolding herself more than Harry, “I don’t really want to continue talking about him if that’s alright?”

“Yeah, okay.” Harry nodded, more than happy to change the subject, “You’re doing really well with Stunning lately.”

“Really? You think so?” Aria blushed at the thought that Harry had actually been paying attention to her.

“Yeah.” he nodded, blinking back a snow flurry.

“Only because you’re an excellent teacher.” Aria replied, nudging him, smiling. The two continued to talk all the way to the Great Hall for dinner. Aria really enjoyed talking to Harry and didn’t realize how much she had missed it. Neither did Harry. There was a lot of things Aria didn’t realize. She didn’t realize what it meant when she got butterflies whenever Harry was around. She didn’t realize why she was so angry with Cho Chang all the time. She didn’t quite realize that she was starting to have feelings for Harry or perhaps she took notice of them but pretended they didn’t exist. After all, it had only been half a year since her boyfriend died. She would feel immense guilt if she let herself have feelings for Harry. But Aria didn’t realize that those feelings would not just disappear like she wanted them to.


	14. The Lion and the Serpent

The next day was the first Quidditch match of the season and Ron was very nervous coming into breakfast. He couldn’t stomach anything and his face was pale and worrisome. Harry tried to cheer him up as much as he could to no avail. Angelina Johnson, the Gryffindor Quidditch captain, had been putting a lot of pressure both of them. This had Professor McGonagall, who was determined to beat Slytherin, giving out almost no homework all week which was a major stress reliever for Aria.

Ron, Harry, and the rest of the Gryffindor team went down to the pitch early to practice a bit since Snape had had the pitch reserved just about every day that week for the Slytherin. So, after breakfast, Hermione, Ginny, and Aria made their way down to the Quidditch pitch with the rest of the spectators. The Gryffindors were decked out in their team's clothing from sweaters, to scarves, to dragon-skinned gloves with the Gryffindor lion on it.

“It’s a Galleon coin that with numbers that change to show the date of the next meeting.” Hermione beamed, showing Aria and Ginny her gold coin invention for the DA.

“Hermione, that’s brilliant!” Aria said as Ginny took it in her hands to look closer.

“Oh no.” Hermione said grimly, stopping in her tracks.

“What? Oh.” Aria then noticed the Slytherin section when they approached the bleachers. Almost every single one of them had a button on their shirt that read: WEASLEY IS OUR KING. Aria did not have a good feeling about this.

“Ron can’t see this.” Hermione said, displeased.

“Hermione, there isn’t really a way he can avoid it.” Aria said, sitting down with her Hermione and Ginny, “He’ll have a view of the whole stadium from up there.”

“Hello.” said a dreamy voice and the girls looked up to see Luna sitting next to them. On the top of her head she wore a large lion hat which she had enchanted to move its mouth and roar.

“Hey there, Luna.” Aria said, trying to look at Luna’s eyes yet her gaze was drawn to Luna’s hat as if it were a magnet.

“Interesting hat.” Hermione said, trying to be polite.

“I thought I’d show some Gryffindor pride.” Luna said, “I have a hat for each of the houses.”

“Even for Slytherin?” Aria asked, smirking.

“Yes but I never find myself wearing it.” Luna replied. As soon as Luna said this, the match began. Madam Hooch had the captain’s shake hands and then she blew her whistle. Just like that, the players were up in the air. Ron went straight for the goal hoops and narrowly escaped a bludger on his ascent. In the first twenty minutes of the game the Slytherins had scored twice on Ron, who had definitely taken notice of the Slytherin who had begun to sing:

 _Weasley cannot save a thing,_  
 _He cannot block a single ring,_  
 _That's why all the Slytherins sing:_  
 _Weasley is our Kin_ g

“Come on!” Ginny shouted at her brother, but she of course was drowned out by the Slytherin who were all led in a repeat of their chorus by Pansy Parkinson. Aria looked to see Harry watching the match in midair on his broom instead of catching the snitch. As Angelina Johnson flew past him, he got his head back in the game.

Luna’s hat and the Gryffindor cheered when Angelina scored the Gryffindor’s first goal of the match. Hopefully, that would boost Ron’s confidence. Aria watched as Harry zoomed past again, this time, with Malfoy right on his tail. The golden snitch was right in front of them! Aria bit her lip as Harry’s right hand was inches away. He must’ve caught it because Madam Hooch blew the whistle. The Gryffindor’s stood up, cheering and clapping in the frosty air. Then, out of the corner of her eye, Aria could see a bludger coming straight for Harry. Before she could warn him, it struck him in the back. Luckily he was only a few feet from the ground and got back up with only the wind knocked out of him.

The Gryffindor team, descended on their brooms towards Harry, raising their fists in the air with loud cheers and Luna’s hat roared once more next to Aria. Aria sighed in relief, knowing there would have been a lot of unhappy campers in the common room tonight if Gryffindor had lost, and Ron would’ve most definitely been one of them. Aria looked down just in time to see Ron sulking back into the changing room. Perhaps, Ron would still be an unhappy camper.

“Aria look!” Ginny shouted, pointing to what Aria thought had been a team huddle. Looking more closely, having been distracted by Ron, Aria now saw what Ginny was talking about. Harry and Fred or George (she could never tell which), were pummeling a Slytherin who Aria would bet anything was Malfoy. Many of the Gryffindors were cheering but up in the teacher's box, McGonagall was rushing down to the pitch. Aria could see Umbridge, sitting next to Professor Sprout, with a smug, poisonous grin on her toad-like face.  
\---------------------------------------  
“It’s a fight. They can’t kick you off the team for that!” Hermione huffed, pacing the Gryffindor common room that night while Harry sat slumped in the chair by the fire and Aria sat on the couch. “You didn’t even do damage! Fred didn’t even touch Draco! They can’t do this.”

“Apparently, Hermione, they can.” Harry said, irritably.

“‘They’ being the keyword.” Aria said sounding angrier than normal, “It’s Umbridge and the ministry. She’s taking over.” Just then, Ron came in through the portrait hole in the wall and slumped down on the couch beside Aria.

“This day is the worse.” Ron said depressingly, “I’m sorry Harry.”

“For what?”

“Thinking I can play Quidditch.” Ron replied, “I might as well go and tell Angelina I’m resigning.”

“No don’t do that.” Hermione said, “If you resign the team will be down both beaters, a seeker, and a keeper. That only leaves three players.”

“This is the worst day of my life.” Ron said, slumping down more.

“Don’t be so dramatic.” Hermione said, taking a seat next to him, “I’m sure you’ve had worse days.”

“Thanks, Hermione. I feel loads better.” Ron said, sarcastically, “Maybe my whole life is just the worse.”

“Well thanks to Umbridge, Fred, George, and I are banned for life.” Harry snapped, “At least, you’re still on the team.”

“Which I don’t want to be on.” Ron replied with a frown.

“Then why did you try out?” Harry exclaimed, growing frustrated.

“If we’re going to blame anyone here. Let’s blame Umbridge.” Aria said hastily.

“I hope old Toad-face gets what’s coming to her.” Ron said.


	15. The Eye of the Snake

November came and went in the blink of an eye and Aria looked forward to leaving for Christmas to see her parents again. Everything was going wonderfully with the DA. She felt like she was learning a lot, and getting closer to Harry in the process. However, she wasn’t just getting close to Harry. Since Aria and Luna were often partners, they had rekindled the friendship they had started in Aria’s third year. Luna was a Ravenclaw, so Hermione often asked Aria to get Luna to spread the word about the DA meetings. (Apparently, many DA members were confusing their fake galleons with real ones and they had to stop using them in fear that they might get into the wrong hands.) At first, Aria thought Hermione had asked her to talk to Luna since they were friends but Aria soon realized it was because, like many others, Hermione thought Luna was strange. In truth, she was quite strange, but Aria enjoyed her company nonetheless.

With her robes wet from the winter snow, Aria hurried to the Room of Requirement for the last DA meeting before the holidays.

“Now, focus on a fixed point and try again.” Harry was saying, as Aria lugged open the big doors. Everyone stopped what they were doing for a moment and turned their attention to her probably fearful that she would be Umbridge. When they realized she was not, everyone went back to what they were doing. By the looks of it, they were all off doing their own thing and practicing everything they had learned previously. Aria found Luna, who had been practicing with a dummy.

“Expelliarmus!” Neville pointed his wand at Harry, who he had yet to disarm.

“Stupefy!” Michael called, managing to Stun Ginny.

“Diminuendo!” Colin Creevey had managed to shrink the rolling dummy to the size of his knees. Harry wandered around the room, helping people as he went. Aria was thrown back from a Stun from Luna.

“Working hard is important,” Harry said as he lifted Dennis Creevey’s wand a little higher and continued on his rounds, “but there's something that matters even more: Believing in yourself. Think of it this way. Every great wizard in history has started out as nothing more than what we are now: students. If they can do it, why not us?”

“Stupefy!" Aria shouted at the dummy as it rolled, past her, having grown back to its regular size again.

“Expelliarmus!” Neville shouted at it, again to no avail. Soon, more students had gathered around the dummy so that they were all aiming at it one by one.

“Expelliarmus!” said Luna, causing the dummy to be thrown back towards Ginny.

“Reducto!” Ginny shouted at it as it came to her, and it a puff of blue and grey smoke, the knight dummy was reduced to a pile of ash. Ginny grinned as everyone, including Harry and Aria, looked at her in awe. Ginny had come a long way in the past couple of years. Aria noticed that she became more outgoing and popular with the boys. Not to mention, she replaced Harry as Seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

As time went on, everyone was back in their pairs, getting better and better with each spell. “Expelliarmus!”,“Stupify!”, “Diminuendo!”, “Reducto!”, and “Levicorpus!” could be heard from around the room. Aria looked to see Harry, basking in the progress.

“Expelliarmus!” Neville shouted from next to Aria. She turned to see the wand fly from Padma Patil’s hand. Everyone stopped what they were doing. Neville, who undoubtedly was their weakest link, had finally managed to disarm someone.

“Fantastic, Neville! Well done!” Harry said and everyone clapped for Neville as he stood there, agape from what he had just done. Harry, noticing that everyone's attention was focused, decided it was a good place to end the lesson. “So that's it for this lesson. Now, we' re not gonna be meeting again until after the holidays. So just keep practicing on your own as best you can. And well done, everyone. Great, great work.” A moan could be heard from all the members as they were sad to be ending the lesson. The smile on Harry’s face was contagious as everyone began to pack up.

“Ginny that was amazing!” Aria grinned as her, Ginny, and Ron started walking through the hall of the seventh floor and back to the common room.

“Thanks!” Ginny exclaimed.

“Yeah, it was alright.” Ron said, sounding jealous of Ginny.

“Wait, where’s Harry?” Aria asked, tossing her head around to look and see if he was behind her, her brown hair nearly smacking Ron in the face.

“He must still be in the room.” Ginny shrugged. Behind them, nearly all the DA members were there in the hall. Aria decided this was the perfect time to talk to Harry and compliment him on his lessons since they were both in such good moods.

“I’ll catch up with you.” Aria smiled and made her way back to the Room of Requirement with her brown satchel on her right shoulder. The door was open just enough for a body to go through. She only had one foot in the doorway when her attention was drawn to the mirror. Half her view was obstructed by the door so she couldn’t see what was in front of the mirror with the way it was angled, but she could see the reflection. She felt her stomach drop and her heart thud like a beating drum. In the reflection, Aria could see Harry and Cho Chang, kissing under the mistletoe. Neither were aware of her, as their eyes were closed but Aria felt like like she needed to run so they wouldn’t see her, or rather, so she could not see them. She felt a tear fall down her face and feeling like she was going to be sick, she bolted from the room.

Her vision became blurry with tears as she ran passed Hermione, Ginny, Ron, and the other DA members. She kept telling herself not to cry but the tears just kept flowing.

“Aria, wait!” she heard Hermione call and in the distance, she could hear running footstep she assumed to be Hermione and someone else. She practically shouted the password at the Fat Lady and ran up to her bed in her dormitory. She was panting from both the crying and the long run.

“Aria…” Aria heard Ginny say softly. Aria looked up from her pillow, her hair sticking to the tears on her face. Through blurred vision, she could see Ginny and Hermione in the doorway of the dormitory and she moved her hair off her face.

“I’m fine. I’m fine, really.” Aria said, undoing her tie hastily and sniffling.

“What happened?” Hermione asked, sitting down on the bed next to Aria.

“I saw H-Harry kissing Ch-Cho.” Aria managed to get out through sniffles.

“I’m sorry, Aria.” Hermione said empathetically.

Aria’s eyes widened. “You know?”

“I’ve known for a while now.” Hermione replied.

“We’ve known you like Harry.” Ginny said with a sad smile, sitting down on Aria’s other side.

“I don’t understand myself.” Aria sniffled, quickly wiping a tear before it could even fall.

“I understand how it can be confusing.” said Hermione, “Harry seemed to like you last year but since you were dating Cedric he was forced to get over you. And now..”

“Now it’s the opposite!” Aria cried in frustration.

“You’re timing really is awful.” said Ginny.

“Do you think I wanted it to play out like this?” Aria cried, “On top of everything I feel guilty for liking him. Like it’s too soon since Cedric…” Aria’s voice trailed off. She hadn’t even thought of this until just now and it made her cry even more. She was now finally in the faze of accepting that she likes Harry and now Cho Chang had to come in and ruin it. She didn’t understand how she could feel sad, angry, and ashamed all at the same time.

“Aria…” Ginny said, putting a hand on Aria’s shoulder. Aria turned red, wondering, what if someone had heard her shouting just now?

“It doesn’t matter.” Aria said, again wiping her tears as if denying they had ever fallen. She stood up and faced Hermione and Ginny, “I’m going to just have to swallow my feelings and put them away somewhere and accept that it’s never going to happen.”

“Maybe-” Hermione started but Aria didn’t want to hear it. She made up her mind that she was just going to have to stop liking Harry if that were even possible. She wasn’t about to let Hermione give her false hope.

“No.” she said sternly, with her nose red and eyes puffy, “I already feel foolish enough.”

“Why didn’t you say something sooner?” Hermione asked, softly.

“I don’t know. I don’t know.” Aria said, feeling more tears slip as she sat back down on the bed. She ran her hands through her hair and looked down at her shoelaces, “I’m so stupid.”

“You’re not stupid.” Ginny reassured.

Aria looked up, eyes wide, “Both of you have to swear you won’t say anything. Pretend none of this ever happened.”

Hermione and Ginny shared a look. Aria couldn’t tell what they were thinking. All she cared about was that they never told Harry. She wished to pretend like nothing ever happened as if it would allow her heart to heal faster.

After a pause, Ginny and Hermione nodded. Shuffling could be heard outside the door of the dormitory, and Aria quickly sprang up to go and grab her pajamas, hiding her face from Lavender and Angelina who had just entered.  
\---------------------------------------------------------------  
Images and people swirled in Harry’s mind as he slept. Watercolor-like Cho was wearing her wand behind her ear and shouting at Harry in the courtyard, “But what about the nargles?!” to which Harry was very confused not knowing at all what Cho was talking about. Then, Hagrid and Umbridge came riding in together on a thestral and Umbridge said “Ten points to Ravenpuff.” They then went back off, riding into the Forbidden Forest. Harry turned around, but Cho was gone. Instead, it was Watercolor-like Aria, except her hair was blonde at the tips like it had been the previous year.

“Do you want to go to the ball with me?” Harry found himself asking.

“Of course.” said Dream Aria, “But I’ll have to let my other date down easy.”

“Who’s your date?” Harry asked.

“Kreacher.” said Dream Aria, nonchalantly. But before Harry could react, his dream collapsed as if his watercolor painting had fallen into the river and everything was runny and soon gone. Now, everything was quite vivid. His body was now fluid and flexible and his belly glided on a smooth, cold floor. He could see it in front of him, the door. The large, ominous door he had seen before. He glided more towards it, wanting to open it. He did it he was through! He wanted to find something, he needed to find something.

Then, he saw a blue light in the darkness. He needed to see what it was, so he slithered towards it. As he got closer to the blue ball of light, he could see it came from the tip of a wand. The wand was held by a wizard. The wizard lay slumped down against a shelf, fast asleep. Oh how much he wanted to sink his teeth into the plump man’s neck. Then, the wizard’s eyes opened and the wizard jumped up. The man jumped when he saw Harry and Harry felt himself sink his teeth into the man again and again. He was satisfied as each time more and more blood poured from the wizard who was almost now passed out on the floor.

Harry woke up in a cold sweat, shaking uncontrollably. It had been a dream but not just any dream. Ron had been awake, probably having heard Harry groaning in his sleep, and he ran to him quickly.

\-----------------------------------------------------------------------  
“Aria, wake up!” Hermione shook Aria in the girls' dormitory that same night. Aria, who had silently cried herself to sleep, opened her puffy eyes and let them adjust to see Hermione standing over her.

“What’s happened?” Aria groaned, sitting up.

“McGonagall says it’s an emergency and once you're decent, to meet her in the common room.” Hermione said sounding panicked, taking the sheets off Aria and helping her up. Aria knew this must be serious and as she got dressed, the grogginess of sleep slowly melted. She quickly got herself decent and then put on a robe and slippers. She ran down the stairs of the dormitory quickly. A few of the girls stirred in their bunks as she did so.

“Harry?” Aria asked concerned when she entered the Common Room. Her friend was standing at the bottom of the stairs with Ron, who was supporting him. Harry wasn’t looking her in the eye and he seemed to be very ill. His shirt was drenched in his own sweat. Aria hurried towards him and put the back of her hand on his head.

“Oh god, you’re burning up!” she cried but Harry did not answer, “Harry?” Professor McGonagall, in an emerald bathrobe, came to them briskly, her hair in a single braid.

“Potter, Ashborn, follow me.” McGonagall said urgently. McGonagall led the three of them out of the portrait hall and towards Dumbledore's office.

“What’s happened? What’s wrong?” Aria asked.

“No time to explain just follow me.” McGonagall said and they hurried along the hall by McGonagall’s blue wand light.


	16. St. Mungo's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One of my favorite chapters between Harry and Aria!

Aria sat in a grey, embroidered armchair in Dumbledore’s office. Ron sat on the arm of the chair until Professor McGonagall dismissed him back to bed. Dumbledore, his back turned away from Aria, Harry, and McGonagall continued to interrogate Harry about the dream he had where Aria’s father had been attacked by a snake.

“In the dream,” said Dumbledore, far too calmly for Harry’s liking, “were you standing next to the victim...or looking down at the scene?”

“Neither.” said Harry, still breathing heavily, “It was like I… Will you please just tell me what's happening?”

Dumbledore turned to a painting behind his desk and ignoring Harry completely said, “Everard, Jacob’s on guard duty tonight. Make sure he's found by the right people.” Aria’s face turned white. At first, she had been convinced that Harry’s dream was nothing but a dream but now, Dumbledore was treating it as if it were real. The man called Everard stood up and left his painting.

“Sir-” started Harry as Aria’s heartbeat began to climb to the same pace as Harry’s.

“Phineas.” said Dumbledore, turning to another painting, “You must go to your portrait at Grimmauld Place. Tell them that Jacob Ashborn is gravely injured and his daughter will be arriving there soon by Portkey.” Grimmauld Place? Portkey? Aria couldn’t seem to get her thoughts straight, much less take in any of this new information. All she knew was that her dad was hurt.

“They've got him, Albus.” said Everard when he returned to his painting. Dumbledore sighed in relief and Aria was reassured that the ‘they’ Everard spoke of were not death eaters, “It was close. They don’t know if he’ll make it yet. What's more, the Dark Lord failed to acquire it.”

“Oh, Alright.” Dumbledore said, “Next we need to…”

“Look at me!” Harry shouted. The room, which had been as bustling as Aria’s thoughts, immediately fell silent. Harry, sweating profusely, had finally grasped Dumbledore’s attention. “What's happening to me?” Just then, Professor Snape had entered to break the awkward silence.

“You wished to see me, Headmaster?” he asked, his narrow eyes darting from Harry to Dumbledore.

“Oh, Severus. I'm afraid we can't wait.” Dumbledore said urgently, “Not even till the morning. Otherwise, we'll all be vulnerable.” It seemed that neither Harry or Aria had any idea what Dumbledore was talking about as Snape grabbed Harry harshly by the wrist.

“Come with me, Potter.” Snape sneered, leading Harry out of the room. Aria looked to Professor McGonagall with pleading eyes, wanting nothing more than to talk to her mother and see her father.

“Minerva, please assist Miss Ashborn in arriving at Grimmauld Place.” Dumbledore said as if he had read her mind. McGonagall then cast Lumos and led Aria back to the Gryffindor Common Room. As they went, Aria looked around to see if Harry was somewhere around with Snape. 

“Pack your things, dear.” McGonagall said urgently. Aria obeyed and ran up the stairs and when she got to her dormitory, briskly pulled her trunk out from under her bed.

“What’s wrong?” Ginny asked. It looked like Hermione and Ginny had both been waiting for Aria to return while everyone else slept.

“My dad’s been attacked. I’ve got to go, I’m sorry.” Aria said, voice shaking. Once she had her things, she went back down the stairs. She did not face her friends to see their reaction but she heard Hermione gasp.

“This should take you straight there.” McGonagall said when Aria reached the bottom of the stairs. McGonagall stood in front of a copper tea kettle that was on the table. Aria would’ve been highly confused if Dumbledore had not already mentioned a Portkey. The only other time Aria had used one was to go to the Quidditch World Cup the previous year. Aria approached the kettle with her trunk in her hands. She turned back to McGonagall.

“Thank you.” she said and Professor McGonagall nodded. Aria than touched the kettle with her one hand. Suddenly, the ground of the Gryffindor Common Room was gone and she felt her body warped and flying aimlessly. Then, in the blink of an eye, she was in the drawing room at Grimmauld Place. Nothing could be heard except for the gentle ticking of the clock on the wall which told her it was one in the morning. She then heard footsteps, expecting it to be Sirius. Much to her surprise it was her mother who walked through the door and wrapped her daughter in a high before Aria could even realize what was happening.

“Mum? How’d you get here so quick?” Aria asked surprised when Mrs. Ashborn let her go. Mrs. Ashborn was also in her pajamas and her hair looked like she had just woken up. It was very strange for Aria to see her mother at Grimmauld Place. It seemed, since her mother was a muggle, that she was from another world Aria was a part of. The only other time Aria had felt this was when her mother came to Diagon Alley to help her buy her books.

“It was-” Mrs. Ashborn started, but she was interrupted by Mrs. Weasley who came bustling into the room.

“Come here, you poor thing.” said Mrs. Wesley, and Aria found herself in yet another hug. 

“Where’s Dad?” Aria asked, setting her trunk down.

“He’s at St. Mungo’s.” said Mrs. Weasley, who was in her everyday attire.

“We’re leaving to go see him right now, darling.” said Mrs. Ashborn.  
\----------------------------------------------------------  
Tonks had offered to escort the Ashborns to the hospital by Knight Bus. When Aria arrived at St. Mungo’s it was not at all how she remembered it. She had been there once as a three-year-old when she accidentally ate some Gillyweed from her father’s herbology collection in his office. Since Mr. Ashborn was not home at the time, Mrs. Ashborn didn’t know what to do and so took Aria to the wizard hospital her husband had told her about. Back then, the hospital was bright and shiny. She remembered how kind the healers were to her and that she got a lollipop that changed flavor with each lick. Now, the hospital was gloomy and dark. Perhaps it was because Aria herself had changed and she was not visiting for the purpose of obtaining a multi-flavored lollipop. The circumstances were gloomy and dark.

“Dad?” Aria asked as they reached the ward. She looked around to see her father lying in a bed in the corner. The only thing she could see of his was his face. He was mostly under a blanket and the body parts that stood out were mostly wrapped in bandages. She ran to him followed by her mother, “Dad!”

“You must be Mrs. Ashborn.” said a healer, approaching Aria’s mother. Aria sat near her father and desperately clung to his cold hand.

“Yes.” said Mrs. Ashborn, voice shaking, “How is my husband?”

“Why is he so cold?” Aria asked before the healer could answer.

“The venom,” said the plump healer, “it’s been cursed. We’ve petrified him so that it wouldn’t spread to the rest of his body.”

“Can you unpetrify him?” Aria asked, desperately wanting to talk to her father.

“I’m afraid not.” said the healer, “If we do that, the venom will spread and he will die. We need to keep him in this petrified coma long enough to find a cure.”

“But you’re a witch! You can just make him better right?” Mrs. Ashborn shouted, unaware that the other patients around her were sleeping.

“I’m afraid it’s a bit more complicated but we’ll do what we can.” said the healer calmly, before totaling out of the room. Mrs. Ashborn sighed sadly and sat in a chair opposite of Aria and next to her husband. Aria wanted to cry seeing how hard it was for her mother not to. The two of them stayed there, for another thirty minutes, just being with Mr. Ashborn, until Aria’s eyes became heavy and sleep started looking very good to her.

“I’ll stay with Daddy.” Mrs. Ashborn said finally, “Why don’t you go back to Grimmauld Place, get some rest, and come back in the morning?”

“But mum-” Aria started.

“You’ll feel better if you rest.”  
\--------------------------------  
When Tonk and Aria arrived back at Grimmauld place it was around two in the morning. With a yawn, Tonks told Aria to go to bed, and Tonks did as well. Aria reached her bed, her feet heavy, there was nothing more she wanted them to sleep. However, once she had the pillow behind her head and the covers over her body, she began to weep. She couldn’t get her mind off her father and all the tears that she had been withholding from her mother began to pour. This would be the second time in the past five hours that she cried herself to sleep. Suddenly, she heard footsteps in the hall. It couldn’t be her mother, she had just left her mother. Thinking maybe it was Tonks, Aria peered out into the hall. There she saw a male figure, rolling a trunk down the stairs. Curiously, she followed it until the two were in the gaslit, narrow hall, that led out of Grimmauld Place. Now, Aria realized that the figure was Harry.

“You’re not leaving?” Aria whispered, accusingly.

“Aria-” Harry said, startled to see her.

Aria felt all her anger and sadness swell up. “My father is dying and you’re leaving me?”

“Aria, you don’t understand.” Harry said, not being able to see Aria’s face in detail as it was a dim hall. If he had, he would see that her eyes were puffy and her face was red.

“All I know is that you are being selfish Harry Potter!” Aria said as tears streamed down her face again, “A-and that…” She couldn’t continue. Her knees buckled under her and she began to weep again. Harry saw for the first time, Aria truly break. He approached her, sympathetically.

“Come here.” he said gently, helping her up.

“I’m so-sorry.” Aria cried as Harry helped Aria back to her room, “Sorry I yelled.” She felt so embarrassed that she was crying in front of Harry. She had tried so hard not to in the past.

“I know you didn’t mean it.” Harry said, as sitting Aria and himself on her bed, “You need to get some sleep.”

“C-can’t.” Aria sniffled, “My dad…” She continued to cry and Harry, not knowing what else to do, just held her. His back had begun aching, from leaning against the headboard, but he didn't dare move. He truly felt sorry for Aria. In fact, he felt guilty for the whole thing. Her father got hurt on a job for the Order. Mr. Ashborn never would’ve joined the Order if Harry hadn’t put Aria in danger by being friends with her. 

This was also the second time in the past two days a girl had cried on his shoulder. The first was Cho Chang, and that had ended in a kiss. Harry was certain that wouldn’t be the outcome this time. As time when on, Aria’s sniffling ceased, as she leaned down, and fell asleep on Harry’s lap. Harry looked down as his eyes became heavy as well. He could see the teardrops clear as day on Aria’s long lashes. He was reminded again, of how pretty she was, even when she was crying. And with that thought, against his will, he too fell asleep.


	17. Christmas on the Closed Ward

“Breakfast!” Harry heard Mrs. Weasley call from down below. Harry opened his heavy eyes and yawned. He had forgotten for a moment where he was. He looked down to see Aria asleep in his lap still as the sun shined in on the room. Careful not to wake her, he slid her head onto a pillow and he tiptoed out of the room. 

Aria stayed in bed most of the day. She woke a few times but mostly slept. She had been so tired from staying up nearly all night the night before. A couple times, Mrs. Weasley came in and brought her food, and even invited her and her mother to stay for Christmas dinner. Aria was eating her baked potato alone on her bed when her mom entered.

“Come on, darling, we’re leaving.” said Mrs. Ashborn, briskly. Aria was so used to seeing her mother put together, but now that was not the case. Mrs. Ashborn wore no makeup and it looked like she hasn't washed her hair in two days. She wore jeans, boots, and a coat.

“But Mum,” Aria replied, “Mrs. Weasley’s invited us to Christmas dinner.”

“We’ll have Christmas tomorrow, just us two.” said Mrs. Asborn, pulling Aria’s trunk out from under the bed and she began throwing clothes into it.

“You’re in no condition to cook, Mum.” Aria said, putting a hand on her mother’s shoulder, “You haven’t gotten any sleep. Besides, we need our friends right now-”

“They are your friends whom we will no longer have anything to do with.” Mrs. Ashborn snapped, surprising Aria.

“What?” 

“This ‘Order’ got your father in a coma.” said Mrs. Ashborn, wavering, “If you think I’m just going to let the same thing happen to you-”

“Mum, it’s what we signed up for!” Aria protested.

“I never wanted any of this!” Mrs. Ashborn shouted, immediately covering her mouth after realizing the others could probably hear her from down below. She sat down on the end of Aria’s bed.

“Mum, let’s just stay.” Aria said, softly. Her mother looked at her with tired eyes that looked to be holding back tears. Aria had never seen her mother in such a state.

“Fine.” said Mrs. Ashborn, “You can stay. I’ll be at St. Mungo's with your father.” And with that, Mrs. Ashborn left the room, leaving a sad Aria behind. 

Aria didn’t leave her room for two days after that. As Christmas approached, when she normally would’ve been happy and excited about her favorite holiday, she was sad and sulked in bed. The only festive thing she did was wrap a few Christmas presents she had purchased a while back. The rest of the Weasley children arrived when term ended and would pop into Aria’s room from time and time again, attempting to get her moving.

“Aria, mum says lunch is ready.” Ron said one afternoon. Aria was sitting on the side of her bed and staring out the window.

“I’m not hungry, thanks.” she said simply, not facing him.

“You sure?” Ron asked, concerned, “She even cut the crust off-”

“I said I’m not hungry, Ron.” Aria said, irritably.

“Right.” said Ron, “I’ll just leave you to your thoughts then.” Aria heard his footsteps growing quieter and the door creaked closed. She didn’t feel like talking to anyone and especially not Harry. In fact, she felt embarrassed having sobbed in front of him the other day. Harry hadn’t come up to her room once since.

“Happy Christmas, Aria!” Ginny exclaimed, early on Christmas morning and she bustled into Aria’s room. Aria, who knew it was a stretch to think she would get out of Christmas, was already dressed and ready to see everyone’s faces for the first time in what seemed like ages but had actually only been a few day.

“Happy Christmas.” Aria said, picking up the wrapped parcels. She had gotten a present for each of the Weasley’s, Harry, Sirius, and Hermione. She had sent Hermione’s present via owl a few days before since Hermione was off skiing with her parents for the holidays.

“We’ve got presents for you downstairs.” Ginny said gleefully.

“I’ll be right there.” replied Aria. Ginny hopped off down the stairs and Aria lingered in her room a bit. She double checked that she had all her presents in her hands before heading out the door. She stopped at the landing when she heard Snape’s voice from the hall down below.

“Monday. My office.” Snape snarled and Aria heard the front door close. She stayed to listen some more.

“What was that all about?” she heard Ron ask.

“Dumbledore wants Snape to give me extra lessons.” said Harry, solemnly.

“Extra lessons with Snape?” exclaimed Ron, “Bloody hell, Harry, I didn’t think you were that bad at potions.”

“Did old Snape give you a T for Troll?” Aria heard, who she assumed to be George, call from the drawing room.

“He’s teaching me Occlumency.” Harry said quietly to Ron, “So Voldemort can’t see in my mind anymore- It’s just a name, Ron.” Aria then heard footsteps in the hall as if someone else had entered.

“Harry, can I speak to you a moment?” Sirius asked and before she knew it Sirius and Harry were heading up the stairs passed her. In order to look like she hadn’t been eavesdropping, she went down the stairs passed them and went into the drawing room where she was bombarded with a hug from Mrs. Weasley.

“Oh Happy Christmas, Aria!” Mrs. Wesley chuckled, handing her a package once she had released her from the hug. Aria put her parcels down to open the present from Mrs. Weasley. Inside was a violet, knit sweater with a gold letter ‘A’ on it.

“Thank you so much Mrs. Weasley.” Aria smiled, putting the scarf on.

“Thanks for the sweets, Aria.” said Fred and Aria looked down to see that the Weasley’s had all taken it upon themselves to pick up their presents from Aria off the floor and open them.

“You’re welcome.” said Aria has Fred and George munched on their Droobles.

“Aria, you’re the best.” Ron said. Aria had given him all of her History of Magic notes and a Chocolate Frog. “Bloody brilliant, you are.”

“Thanks.” Aria replied. Once everyone seemed to be enjoying their presents and Aria had opened hers (A homework planner from Hermione to match the one she gave Harry, a small model broomstick from Harry, and more sweets from Ron) Aria retreated back up the stairs feeling like she’d done her duty and could go back to sulking.

Again, she found herself eavesdropping when she got back to her room. She could hear, through the wall, the voices of Harry and Sirius in the room adjacent to hers. She pressed her ear to the wall curiously.

“What if the reason for it is that I am becoming more like him?” Harry exclaimed, “I just feel so angry all the time. And what if, after everything that I've been through something's gone wrong inside me? What if I'm becoming bad?”

Aria felt guilty for listening to this, yet she couldn’t stop herself. How could Harry possibly think he was a bad person? He was the kindest person she knew and her best friend.

“You're not a bad person.” Sirius said calmly, and Aria thanked him in her head for saying what she wished she could, “You're a very good person who bad things have happened to. You understand? Besides, the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters.”

“Sirius, I just can’t help but feel that Aria’s father...it’s my fault.” Harry said, sadly. Aria pressed her ear to the wall harder. She suddenly felt even worse about spilling her guts to Harry. She had never intended to make him feel this way.

“Why would you go and say a thing like that?” Sirius asked and Aria hoped Harry didn’t answer with something she said.

“Because they never would’ve joined the Order if it weren’t for me.” Harry said but this didn’t make Aria feel any better, “I’m putting them all in danger.”

“I need you to listen to me very carefully, Harry.” Sirius said, wisely, “This is not your fault. People make their own decisions. Jacob knew the risks. And just because you saw the attack as the snake does not make you bad. We've all got both light and dark inside of us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are. When all this is over, we'll be a proper family. You'll see.” Aria stepped back from the wall and went back to sit on her bed. It had never been her intent to make Harry feel any worse than he already did and Aria felt really bad. 

She stayed in her room for the rest of Christmas Day as more snow flurries fell past her window. She skipped lunch and dinner and even though her stomach growled, she could not bring herself to go back down. She half-hoped that Harry would come through the door so she could tell him that none of this was his fault but at the same time she didn’t want him to comfort her any further and make her feel worse. This caused her to jump when she heard the door open to her room that night.

“Wocher, Aria.” Tonks said, with short, pink hair, “You’re turkey’s getting’ cold.”

“I wasn’t hungry.” Aria said, relaxing when she realized Tonks wasn’t Harry. Tonks sat on the edge of her bed, holding a plate of turkey and mashed potatoes. Aria’s stomach began to grumble again. 

“You may not be hungry now, but later you’ll be starving.” Tonks said as Aria took a seat next to her, “Did you eat anything at all today?”

“No.” Aria shrugged.

“Eat.” Tonks said, forcing the plate in Aria’s hands. Aria couldn’t hold back any longer and she began to eat the potatoes and the turkey. Not messy-like but quickly nonetheless.

“Tonks?” Aria asked when she was finished eating.

“Yeah?” 

“Do you think he’ll wake up?” Aria asked, softly.

“I hope so.” Tonks replied, “They’ve got all the time in the world to find a cure. Don’t you worry.”

“Too late.” Aria said, setting her plate on the bed beside her.

“Here, I’ve got an idea.” Tonks said sprightly, “Why don’t we go visit him? Wish him a Happy Christmas?”

“I thought Mad-Eye told you to keep us all here?” Aria asked as if it were too good to be true.

“What Mad-Eye doesn’t know, won’t kill ‘em.” Tonks said with a smile.

“Oh thank you!” Aria beamed, hugging Tonks. For the first time since her father had been attacked, she felt excited about something. Out of all the people to make her feel better, she never expected it to be Tonks. But, Tonks, for some reason, had taken Aria under her wing like a little sister, almost.  
\------------------------------  
Tonks and Aria snuck out of Grimmauld Place that night and took the Knight Bus to St. Mungo’s. When they arrived, Aria felt her feet fly under her as she ran to her dad’s ward. She was surprised how she remembered exactly where it was after only being there once. When they reached the door, Aria started to go through but stopped when she saw Tonks not following.

“I’ll wait out here.” she said, smiling “Oh and Aria. They say that people in a coma can hear you when you talk to them.” Aria nodded and went into the ward. Most of the patients were asleep as there were no lights on. The ward was lit only by moonlight. Aria spied her father, asleep in the corner bed, but was surprised to see her mother had gone. A healer walked past, carrying tea, and placed it with some other visitors of loved ones.

“Where’s my Mum?” Aria asked as the healer walked past.

“She just left.” said the healer, not stopping, “Poor dear had been here for two days straight.” The healer then bustled out of the room.

“Hey Dad.” Aria said, sitting in the chair next to her bandaged father. “Having a nice dream?” She shifted in her chair, feeling like people were staring at her for talking to a man in a coma. Then she realized they were all asleep and she lowered her voice.

“We miss you.” she said, “Everyone is talking about how brave you are. You-Know-Who didn’t get the weapon. Whatever the weapon is. You did your job well. Everyone is waiting to congratulate you when you wake. And-Neville?” 

“Aria.” Neville stopped, his face turning pink. He was walking to two beds in the opposite corner of Aria. He held two wrapped parcels in his hands. In the bed were a man and woman. The woman had a round shaped face like Neville although she was slightly skinnier. 

“Are those...are those your parents?” Aria asked quietly, making her way to Neville, who continued to stand in front of the bed. Aria stood next to him as he didn’t say anything. She wondered if she had accidentally triggered something in Neville. She didn’t mean to pry. She was about to excuse herself when Neville sighed.

“Fourteen years ago a Death Eater named Bellatrix Lestrange used the Cruciatus Curse on my parents.” he said, softly, “She tortured them for information but they never gave in. I'm quite proud to be their son. But I'm not sure I'm ready for everyone to know just yet.” Aria stared down at the sleeping Longbottoms. Aria knew Neville lived with his grandmother but she had never bothered to ask why.

“We're gonna make them proud, Neville.” Aria said, looking back at her father, “That's a promise.”

“I’m sorry about your Dad.” Neville said, “I head some healers talking about it as I was coming in.”

“Me too.” Aria said, watching the rise and fall of her father’s chest. She turned back to Neville. “Happy Christmas, Neville.”

“Happy Christmas.”


	18. Hagrid's Tale

January hit with a bang as all the fifth years stressfully studied for their O.W.Ls. Aria found that studying took up most of her time so that she didn’t even get to converse with her friends much. She, however, liked this. She did not feel like talking to her friends at all. She felt it was wrong to act happy when her father was wilting away at St. Mungo’s. She also didn’t like everyone feeling bad for her and looking at her like she was a lost puppy. It made her feel weak. So in order to avoid all this, she simply remained quiet and kept to herself.

Ron and Hermione did not take this lightly. They were constantly pestering to talk and make her feel better which was the opposite of the wanted. If anyone were to talk to her she would want it to be Harry because it would mean he cared about her. But, Harry had a million other things on his mind like Occlumency and the DA. She didn’t want to bother him.

“Psst. Aria.” whispered Ron during potions one day, “Aria. How many rat tails?”

“Four.” she replied irritably, knowing full well this was just Ron’s excuse to get her to talk to him.

“Alright.” he said, looking back at his cauldron. He pursed his head up again, “Um...Aria. Did you do your star chart for Astronomy?”

“Yep.” she said, not looking at him. She turned a page in her potion’s book.

“Look, Aria.” Ron said, concerned, “I know how many tails there are and I know you did your Astronomy homework. I just want you to talk to me.”

“I am talking.”

“I mean actually talking like we used to.” Ron said, “Look, I know your dad-”

“Your potion is blue.” Aria interrupted as Ron’s potion had indeed turned from grey to blue.

“You need to get out. Have some fun again.” Ron said as if she hadn’t interrupted him, “I hate seeing you all sad. You being depressed is making all of us depressed. Harry most of all. You should at least talk to him.”

“Weasley, the directions specifically say four rat tails not five which you would know if you were paying attention instead of talking.” Snape snarled from behind Ron. “Five points from Gryffindor.”

After class, Aria felt bad for being so cold to Ron. She still didn’t want to talk to him but she had definitely heard what he said about making Harry depressed. Had she really? She hadn’t noticed that in all her sulking she had made the people around her sad as well. She decided that she would talk to him, finally. Just to let him know that he needn’t worry about her. She saw him walking in front of her in the courtyard and attempted to catch up to him. She had almost reached him when-

“Cho!” he called. Cho stopped and turned to him, “Would you like to come with me to Hogsmeade on Valentine’s Day?”

“Great.” Aria said irritably to herself, taking a step back, “That’s just great.” Suddenly, running footsteps could be heard behind her. She turned to see Hermione running towards her, her bushy hair bouncing behind her.

“Aria! Harry! Hagrid’s back!” she shouted. Harry excused himself from Cho and met Hermione and Aria in the middle of the courtyard.

“Really? Let’s go then!” Harry said and they turned to leave but stopped when Aria spoke.

“I have a lot of homework to do.” Aria said, stepping back the opposite way, “I’ll see you later.”

“Don’t you want to see Hagrid?” Hermione asked, confused.

“I’ll see him in class tomorrow.” Aria said.

“Are you sure?” Harry asked, this being the first time her and Aria had spoken since the holidays. Aria nodded and Harry said, “Alright, see you.”  
\----------------------------------------  
“Giants?!” Aria exclaimed when Ron and Hermione joined her in the library that night to fill her in.

“Shhh!” Hermione warned with her finger pressed to her mouth.

“What’s Dumbledore's got Hagrid meeting with giants for?” Aria asked, lowering her voice. This was the first real conversation she’d had with her friends in a while and she almost didn’t notice as she eased back into it so well.

“He’s recruiting them, to fight You-Know-Who.” Ron whispered.

“Wait, why was he gone so long?” Aria asked, regretting not visiting Hagrid, “I heard Madame Maxime has been back for weeks.”

“Dunno.” Hermione replied, “He wouldn’t say.” She then turned to Harry as he walked up to the table, “Harry, how’d it go?”

“How’d what go?” Aria asked, feeling out of the loop, “Occlumency?” Harry looked surprised at how interactive Aria was being.

“Yeah. It went how’d you expect an evening in with Snape would be.” Harry said, unhappily, “It’s terribly difficult and I can’t seem to block him out.”

“Well, you just have to keep practicing.” Hermione encouraged.

“Well, he’s not really telling me how to do that.” Harry said coldly, “He’s just expecting me to figure it out.”

“Maybe if you asked-” Aria started.

“Don’t say it.” Harry said.

“We were just telling Aria about Hagrid’s.” said Hermione before turning to Aria, “We saw Umbridge when went down there. Hagrid’s most likely going to be on probation if he doesn’t teach us something tame. Remember what happened with Buckbeak? He can’t risk that hap-Harry?”

Harry had started laughing, a large grin on his face. He did not falter when Hermione questioned him but just kept laughing more maniacally. Ron shook him.

“Harry, what’s so funny? Harry!”  
Harry’s laughing died out. Everyone in the library was looking over to him. Aria, Ron, and Hermione all looked at him with concern. “He’s happy.” Harry whispered nervously, after getting a grip on himself, “Overjoyed. Something happened that he really wanted to.”


	19. Seen and Unforseen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters a day from now on!

“Well now we know what it is.” said Aria at breakfast the next day. Hermione hadn’t even needed to flip to through the Daily Prophet to find why Voldemort was so happy. On the front cover in bold letters were the words: MASS BREAKOUT FROM AZKABAN. There were multiple death eater mugshots on the front but was drawn to one in particular. A woman with a giant, skull-like face screamed in the picture. Her was dark and matted and her skin dark as well. Aria gulped when she read the name of the woman underneath: Bellatrix Lestrange. The woman who had driven Neville’s parents to insanity. Aria continued to read the article underneath which read:

‘We have confirmed that 10 high-security prisoners in the early hours of yesterday evening did escape. And of course, the Muggle prime minister has been alerted to the danger. We strongly suspect that the breakout was engineered by a man with personal experience in escaping from Azkaban notorious mass murderer Sirius Black cousin of escapee Bellatrix Lestrange.’

“I can’t believe they're blaming this on him!” Harry said angrily as Hermione put the newspaper down with a huff.

Dumbledore warned him this would happen.” Hermione said irritably.

“He’s gonna get us all killed because he can’t face the truth.” Aria said taking a bite of her sausage. She sat next to Hermione facing Harry and Ron opposite her. Just then, Cho skipped up behind Harry from the Ravenclaw table.

“Happy Valentine’s Day, Harry.” she said sweetly with a smile before skipping away. Harry gazed dopily at her. Hermione saw Aria roll her eyes. 

The owls of the morning flew in overhead carrying letters and packages. Aria’s owl, Ani, flew overhead and dropped a white envelope on her lap. She ripped it open, hoping it would have news on her dad.

Hey kid,  
I’ve been told you haven’t been very talkative lately. Just wanted to let you know that they are working day and night to find a cure for your father and it’s very likely that they will. So, try to enjoy your time at Hogwarts and when you come back your Dad will be good as new. Go have some fun or something. Fly a broom. You remind me a lot of me when I was your age.  
-Tonks.

“She’s right you know.” said Hermione, having leaned over Aria’s shoulder to read the letter.

“Hermione.” Aria scolded.

“Sorry, I hope you don’t mind.”

“Which part is she right about?” Aria asked, folding the letter back up and sticking it in her bag.

“You should have fun.” encouraged Hermione, nudging Aria, “Get your mind off things. Here’s an idea, why don’t you come with us to Hogsmeade today?”

“I thought you weren’t going to Hogsmeade.” Aria replied.

“We weren’t. But I don’t think there’s any Quidditch practice today anymore.” Ron said grimly, “Angelina had a major meltdown after the last match went sour.”

Aria looked from Harry to Hermione, to Ron. They were all looking at her expectantly for an answer. She couldn’t help but smile, “Oh, alright. I’ve been meaning to get a new quill anyway.”  
\------------------------------  
“Honestly Ronald, you have the emotional capacity of a teaspoon.” Hermione snapped at Ron as they followed Aria around Scrivenshaft’s Quill Shop that day in Hogsmeade. Harry was on his date with Cho.

“You two bicker so much.” Aria said, picking up crow’s feather quill and feeling it in her hands.

“Even I’ll admit, we do.” Hermione sighed.

“Do not!” Ron countered.

“Do to!”

“Alright that’s enough!” Aria shouted and they stopped. She held up the black crows feathered quill and a silver, owl feathered quill, “Now, black or grey?”

“Shopping for quills is the most boring thing you could’ve picked to do, you know.” Ron said without interest.

“Fine.” Aria raised her eyebrows and set down the quills, “What do you want to do?”

“Let’s go to Honeydukes.” Ron suggested, “I’m craving something sweet.” Aria smiled at the idea and Hermione and Aria followed Ron out of the store. Hermione’s eyes lingered on a few quills as they went. As they made their way over to Honeydukes, they passed Madam Puddifoot's. Aria smiled sadly when she remembered Cedric asking her to the Yule Ball there over a year before. Her memory faded when she saw Harry inside with Cho and she sped up her walking, not wanting to see them together. 

It was still chilly in Hogsmeade, though most of the snow had melted away. Aria, Hermione, and Ron wiped their feet off on the mat as they entered the sweet shop. There were shelves upon shelves of chocolate, sugar-candy, suckers, and more. In the center display was a plastic-wrapped chocolate frog as big as a 50’s television set. Hermione, Ron, and Aria were drawn immediately to it.

“This chocolate frog is huge.” Hermione said in awe, “I’ve never seen one so big. That’ll definitely rot your teeth out.”

“Look, who am I?” Aria smiled when she thought of something funny. She picked up the chocolate frog, which was lighter than she had anticipated, and help it up in front of her face. She then said in a mock, high voice, “Educational decree number 702. Students shall not rot their teeth out.”

Ron and Hermione laughed at Aria’s Umbridge impression as Aria put the chocolate frog back on the shelf and laughed with them. She hadn’t laughed this much in ages.

“Oh I hope we don’t get that far.” Ron joked, “She makes any more decrees and all the walls in the whole school will be covered.”

“Is that Harry?” Hermione asked and Aria turned to see Harry entering Honeydukes, the bell on the door ringing as it opened.

“I thought he was on a date?” said Aria. Harry sulked over to Hermione, Aria, and Ron.

“Hey mate, why are you back so early?” Ron asked what Hermione and Aria were thinking.

“I dunno.” Harry shrugged, “Cho left crying.”

“You’re that bad of a date?” Ron laughed.

“One minute we were talking about Quidditch,” Harry explained, “and the next she’s talking about how Rodger Davis asked her out and then she’s crying about how she’s risking her Mum’s job by being in the DA.”

“Honestly, Harry, how can you be so tactless?” Hermione said, rolling her eyes as they left Honeydukes and walked towards the Three Broomsticks. Ron and Harry were staring at her with confused expressions. She sighed, “Well it’s obvious, isn’t it? Well, obviously, she was trying to see if you were interested in her when she told you about Rodger.”

“Why’d she have to do it like that then?” Harry asked, “Why couldn’t she just ask me if I fancy her so I could say yes and move on with it?”

“Because that’s not how it works.” Hermione said as if this were common sense, “And I hate to say it, but she was probably crying to get your attention which means you weren’t showing her enough.”

“What?” Harry exclaimed as Ron opened the door of the Three Broomsticks, “I took her to some ugly tea shop and bought her tea while cherubs flew around us. I’d say I was paying her a fair amount of attention.”

“Well did you mention anything that might’ve made her think otherwise?” Aria asked.

“No.” Harry said as he sat down, “Well I did say I was meeting you lot at Honeydukes.”

“Did you say Ron’s name?” Hermione asked and Harry still didn’t have a clue.

“No.” he replied, “I think I said ‘Hermione and a few others’. But what’s it matter?”

“She got jealous of me, that’s what.” Hermione said. “Four butterbeers please.” The woman who had taken their order went back to the bar to fetch the butterbeers.

“Jealous of you?” Harry exclaimed, screwing his face up in even more confusion, “But you’re my friend and she knows that.”  
"Still.” Aria said as their butterbeers were set down in front of them.

“Honestly, you two should write a book or something so blokes like us can understand girls.” Ron said and Aria giggled into her butterbeer glass.

“So what do I do now?” Harry asked.

“Apologize to her.” Aria said, although she felt guilty satisfaction in the problems Harry and Cho were having in their relationship.


	20. The Sneak

Soon, February had melted into March. The DA met quite often and as they got better, Harry increased the difficulty of the lesson. Aria tried not to think about her father but every time an owl dropped by in the early mornings, she hoped it would be news about him. It never was. She busied herself by studying for her O.W.L.s. She had to meet with Professor McGonagall to discuss career plans. This way she would know what to aim for with her O.W.L.s. The only problem was, she didn’t know what her career plans were at all. She didn’t think she’d be cut out to be an auror like Harry wanted to be though it intrigued her. After looking through leaflet after leaflet, nothing really sparked her interest. McGonagall suggested she just to her best on all her O.W.L.s and think more about her career. 

Towards the end of March, the DA met once again. Today, they were practicing patronuses. Everyone was scattered around the room as silvery-blue magic streamed from their wand. Only a few had gotten their patronus into an animal. Aria was not one of those few. In fact, every time she tried, only a few drops of magic fell from her wand.

“Make it a powerful memory, the happiest you can remember.” Harry exclaimed to the class, “Allow it to fill you up. George, your turn now.”

“Expecto Patronum!” Cho said from behind Aria. Aria turned to see Cho’s swan patronus gliding gracefully past her. It took everything in Aria not to roll her eyes.

“A full-bodied Patronus is the most difficult to produce but shield forms can also be equally useful against a variety of opponents.” Harry said, “Fantastic, Ginny. Just remember, your Patronus can only protect you for as long as you stay focused. So focus, Luna.”

“Expecto Patronum.” Aria said again and again it fizzled out, “I'm trying.”

“I know.” Harry said, speaking softly now to just her. “Here, try this. Close your eyes. Think of the happiest memory you have.” Aria did as he said. Her heart was beating fast as he stood right behind her. She again pushed her feelings for him down and tried to think of something happy. She didn’t want to think of her dad. Anything but him. She thought of Honeydukes, laughing with Ron and Hermione.

“Expecto Patronum!” she said, opening her eyes. This time the silvery mist turned into a medium-sized bird which soared above her and quickly burst into blue flames and fizzled out.

“Good!” Harry praised her even though her patronus was only alive for mere seconds while people around her kept theirs alive for minutes. Hermione had created an otter, Luna a hare, and Ron, a dog whose breed Aria could not make out as it fizzled away before she could.

“This is really advanced stuff, guys. You're doing so well.” Harry said with a smile. Just then, the door to the Room burst open. All eyes turned in fear that it would be Umbridge. It was not, however. Instead, it was a small house-elf, with bright red shoes. Aria recognized him from her third year, when she would sometimes hide in the Hogwarts kitchens from Pansy Parkinson.

“Harry Potter, sir!” cried the elf.

“Dobby?” Harry asked with great surprise. Harry had kneeled down so that he was closer to level with the elf.

“Oh no, sir,” Dobby cried, hitting himself with his own hands, “Dobby has been warned not to tell you, sir! Bad Dobby!” Dobby took his shoe off and started hitting himself repeatedly over the head with it.

Harry grabbed the shoe from him and said urgently, “Warn me about what, Dobby?”

“She found out about the Come and Go Room, sir!” Dobby cried and grabbed the other shoe off his foot.

“She? You mean Umbridge?” Harry asked in a panic, he looked around at everyone, “What are you waiting for everyone? Run!”

No one needed to tell her twice. Aria followed the crowd of DA members out the door and ran through the corridor. At first, she had been following Ginny and Luna but as she grew further behind them, and she heard footsteps behind her, she realized she needed to hide quick. She saw the girls lavatory right around the corner. Hoping to lose the footsteps, she ducked in and hid in a stall.

“Well, aren’t you sweaty?” said a high-moaning voice from inside the stall with her.

“Be quiet Myrtle!” Arai whispered and the ghost girl huffed and flew down into the toilet which Aria stood on to hide her feet. She held her breath as the door to the bathroom creaked open and echoing footsteps entered.

“Hiding are we?” said the sneering voice of Pansy Parkinson, “Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.” Aria grasped her wand tightly in her pocket. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Pansy was standing right on the other side of the stall door. Whipping her wand out, Aria through the stall door open and smacked Pansy right in the face.

“You’ll pay for that!” she cried, clutching her nose. But Aria quickly turned around.

“Expelliarmus!” she called and Pansy’s wand went flying from her hand. Aria did not look to see if Pansy was picking up her wand, she had already broken out into a run through the corridor and towards the Gryffindor Common Room. 

“Locomotor Wibbly!”

Suddenly, Aria’s legs collapsed beneath her and she had fallen onto the stone floor. She felt a stinging feeling in her knee and suspected she had scraped it. Before she could get up, Pansy was pulling her to her feet by the collar of her robes.

“Ha. Got you now, Ashborn.” Pansy sneered, “I suspect Umbridge will give all of you a worthy amount of detention.”  
\------------------------------------------  
“Dumbledore took credit for the whole thing?” Hermione exclaimed in the Gryffindor Common room that night by the fire. Every DA member would have detention the following evening.

“Yeah and they were gonna send him to Azkaban too.” Harry said miserably, “But he knocked everyone but Marietta, McGonagall, and me out and then disapparated.”

“I thought you couldn’t disapparate within Hogwarts.” Aria said.

“Well he is headmaster.” Hermione pointed out.

“Not anymore.” Harry said bitterly.

“Marietta.” Ron said her name as if it were disgusting for it to touch his tongue, “That sneak.”

“Harry. You did everything you could.” Aria said, putting a hand on his shoulder, he shrugged it off, “No one could win against that old hag. Even Dumbledore didn't see this coming.”

“Harry, if it's anyone's fault, it's ours.” Hermione said.

“Yeah, we talked you into it.” said Ron.

“Yeah, but I agreed.” Harry snapped, “I tried so hard to help, and all it's done is make things worse. Anyway, that doesn't matter anymore. Because I don't want to play anymore. All it does is make you care too much. And the more you care, the more you have to lose. So maybe it's just better to…”

“To what?”

“To go it alone.”


	21. Grawp

Aria sat in the Great Hall with the rest of the members of the DA, except for Marietta and Cho Chang. The four long, house tables had been replaced with desks that faced the front. Aria looked up irritably at Umbridge who stood like poisoned honey in the front of the room, watching the students serve their detention diligently. Aria looked down at the pink paper she was expected to write on. She held a quill but there was no ink. She put a hand upon the table, knowing what would happen if she wrote on the paper. She looked around to see her fellow students wincing. She heard Umbridge’s heels making their way toward her and she knew she was going to have to write.

She regrettably wrote “I will not disobey the decrees.” on her paper. Immediately, she felt the stinging pain in her hand as the words that were on the paper appeared etched into her flesh. Umbridge had now stopped walking towards her and smiled at Aria. This is what Harry had endured for weeks on end? She knew it was horrible, yes, but she couldn’t imagine doing it again to herself. Just then, the clock struck 6. And Umbridge nodded for the students to leave. Aria looked around and found Harry and Ginny near her. She began to walk with them and exit the Great Hall when-

“Hem hem.” Umbridge coughed lightly. The students who hadn’t quite reached the door turned to Umbridge, “Miss. Ashborn, if you could kindly stay behind.” Aria looked to Harry and Ginny before returning to her seat. Harry and Ginny stayed for a moment as well before Umbridge ushered them on with her hand. Once all the students had left and the doors were closed, Umbridge made her way to Aria.

“I assure you, there is nothing to worry about.” Umbridge said a wide grin upon her face and Aria did not feel reassured. “Why don’t you follow me to my office?” Aria then stood up and followed Umbridge from the Great Hall, shooting a glare into her back. As they crossed the entrance hall, Aria caught a glimpse of Harry storming away from Cho Chang. She made a mental note to ask him about it later. 

“Take a seat.” Umbridge said when they reached her office. The office was all pink with china plates on the wall, each with a moving picture of a kitten on it. Aria took a seat in a small desk in front of Umbridge’s large oak desk. Behind the oak desk was a large fireplace. Umbridge closed the door and trotted over to her desk where a teapot sat with a cup on the table. Aria stared blankly as Umbridge poured tea into the cup and handed it to Aria.

“Drink up, dear.” Umbridge said, being far too kind. Aria looked down at the brown tea and took a sip. 

“Now,” said Umbridge, “We’re going to have a bit of a chat, you and I.”

“Why me?” Aria asked.

“No particular reason.” said Umbridge, “Now, don’t try to deny it. You know where Dumbledore is.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t.” Aria said truthfully, now realizing Umbridge had brought her there to interrogate her.

“Interesting.” Umbridge said, “But, Mr. Potter does I assume.”

“No one knows.” Aria said, shortly.

“Alright, fine.” said Umbridge, her face growing frustrated, “What about your father?”

“He’s in St, Mungo’s.” said Aria, not sure why she felt the need to say that. She hadn’t meant to say anything at all.

“Yes, I know where he is, dear girl.” Umbridge said, her smile wavering, “Why is he there? Why was he in the Department of Mysteries?”

“He was guarding it.” Aria said involuntarily, before slapping her hands over her mouth.

“Guarding what?” Umbridge asked, leaning over the table eagerly. Aria kept her hands over her mouth but it was no use.

“The weapon!” she again said involuntarily.

“Weapon? What weapon?” Umbridge pressed, now out from around her desk and leaning over Aria’s.

“I don’t know.” Aria said truthfully and she sighed in relief.

“Have another drink.” Umbridge hastily practically forcing the tea into Aria’s mouth. Aria, now realizing that the tea must have some kind of truth serum in it, pushed back the cup, but not before a drop or two had gotten into her mouth.

“Do you know the location of Sirius Black?” Umbridge asked, almost nose to nose with Aria who leaned back as far as she could and struggled to get out of the chair but Umbridge would not let her. Aria tried to clear her mind and maybe trick it into not knowing where Sirius was but it was no use.

“Yes!” Aria involuntarily cried. Umbridge licked her lips and Aria knew exactly what she was going to ask. She tried hard to clear her mind again as if that would work. She would not give up Sirius’s location. That would blow the whole Order of the Phoenix, he may be caught, and most of all, she would have to Harry to answer to.

“Where is Sirius Black hiding?” Umbridge asked and the words echoed in Aria’s mind and she bit her lip, and her tongue, both of which fought against her. Her face was screwed up as she concentrated as hard as she could on staying silent. She could not stop it. Her mouth opened as if it were about to speak. Before she could, the door to Umbridge’s office opened.

Umbridge jumped up when she saw Filch coming through the door. With Umbridge caging her in no more, Aria made a run for it, out of the office and straight for the Gryffindor Common Room.

“Number twelve, Grimmauld Place.” she whispered involuntarily under her breath as she ran. Luckily, she was far out of earshot of Umbridge and Filch when she said this. They did not follow her and she eventually made it through the portrait hall and into the Gryffindor Common Room. She closed the portrait hole behind her and sank down, panting.

“What’s wrong?” Ginny asked, kneeling beside Aria.

“Get Fred and George. And Harry, Ron, and Hermione.” Aria said, making her way over to the couch, still breathing heavily.

“Harry, Ron, and Hermione aren’t here.” Ginny said, sitting next to Aria. Aria thought this was odd but was too in shock from what she happened to dwell on it.

“Fred and George then.” said Aria and Ginny beckoned them over and they took a seat by the fireplace on the floor.

“Whatever you do,” Aria said, finally able to catch her breath, “do not drink anything Umbridge gives you.”

“What did she give you?” Fred asked.

“I think Veritaserum.” Aria replied.

“What’s that?” Ginny asked as Fred and George gaped at Aria.

“It makes you tell the truth.” George told her and Ginny covered her mouth with her hands. “What did the old toad ask you?”

“Everything you can imagine.” Aria replied, “Where Dumbledore is, if Harry knows, and where Sirius is.”

“You didn’t tell her did you?” Ginny asked, eagerly leaning towards Aria. Aria leaned away as an instinct from what had just happened with Umbridge.

“No.” Aria said and the twins let out the breath they were holding. “I escaped by the skin of my teeth. I did...tell her about the weapon.”

“What?” Ginny gasped.

“Just that there was one.” Aria replied, “Not what it is. Seeing as I don’t know. But I was more worried about Sirius. I let it slip that I know where he is. I didn't tell her. Imagine if I did though? Harry would be so mad at me.”

“The whole Order would be found out.” George said his head, then he joked about “Harry being mad at you would be the least of your problems.”

“Sirius is really important to Harry.” Aria said the rest of the Gryffindors had now gone up to bed, “Where is he by the way? I really need to talk to him about some things.”

“Like what?” Ginny asked.

“Well I want to tell him this and ask him what happened with him and Cho.” Aria said, not meaning to say the last part and to her surprise, they kept talking, “I hope they aren’t together anymore.”

“Why?” Fred joked, “Do you want Harry all for yourself or something?” George laughed and Ginny didn’t say anything.

“Yes.” Aria said seriously. Both Fred and George fell silent and stared at Aria. Oh no! She must still have veritaserum in her system. Her face flushed red and before Ginny could say anything, Aria had retreated up to her dormitory. Lavender and Parvati Patil were sitting on Lavender's bed chatting and a few more girls were getting their pajamas on. Aria put her pajamas on as well and went to sit on her bed. She was about to open her History of Magic book and study when Hermione entered.

“It’s about time.” Aria said as Hermione took a seat on the edge of Aria’s bed, “Where have you been?”

“Well, Hagrid had to talk to us about something.” Hermione whispered nervously.

“About what?” Aria whispered. Hermione then told her that Hagrid had taken her, Ron, and Harry to the Forbidden Forest to meet his half-brother giant, Grawp. Hagrid requested that they look after Grawp and teach him English should Hagrid get sacked.

“You’re going to teach him English?” Aria whispered, jaw-dropping, “Hermione that’s never going to happen. Wait, why didn’t Hagrid-”

“I’m sure he would have shown you too if you hadn’t been-” Hermione started, “wait, what happened with Umbridge?” Hermione drew closer as Aria told her about Umbridge and the Veritaserum.

“That’s extremely lucky.” Hermione said when Aria had finished, “Next time, don’t drink anything that woman offers you.”

“Oh don’t worry.” Aria said, “I’ve learned my lesson.”

“At least we know she has no idea where Dumbledore is.” Hermione replied, moving over to her bed and pulling her pajamas out of her droor, “The ministry acts like they know everything nowadays.”

“Yeah but it’s also just one big bluff.” Aria said, reaching for her History of Magic book again.

“For now.” Hermione warned, “It’s almost better if none of us know anything.” Just then, Ginny came into the room and Aria jumped up.

“Ginny!” she said, running over to her and Ginny was taken back, “Did Fred and George...about what I said…”

“You’re lucky.” Ginny said as he walked back over ot Aria’s bed, “I think they’re completely oblivious.” Aria let out a sigh of relief and fell back onto her bed.

“What’s happened?” Hermione asked, curiously.

Aria blushed, “I still had the Veritaserum in me and I told Fred and George how I feel about Harry.”

“Luckily not in so many words.” Ginny laughed.

“So you still like Harry?” Hermione asked and she took a seat on Aria’s bed again, abandoning her pajamas she was about to put on.

Aria took a breath, “I guess as much as I try to suppress it, yes I do.”

“You know, it’s okay to like him.” said Hermione casually, “Cedric would want you to move on.”

Aria noticed that for the first time in a while, her body didn’t tense at the mention of Cedric. “What about Cho?”

“From what I’ve heard, they aren’t together anymore.” Ginny said and Aria felt her heart leap, “Harry didn’t like the way she was standing up for the sneak.”

“Huh.” Aria said, sinking back into her pillow. That night she would dream of Cedric again. His hair, his eyes, the Yule Ball, their first kiss but it didn’t make her feel sad. She missed him, yes. But her heart was healing.


	22. O.W.L.S

The next day was a warm Saturday. That afternoon, Aria, wishing to be alone with her thoughts, took out bookbag and walked down to the Black Lake and found a nice spot under a beech tree. She opened her Astronomy notes and found it very difficult to concentrate as she tried to memorize all the names of the stars. She liked the feeling of the warm, June sun on her skin. The slow-moving of the lake was so peaceful that she could almost fall asleep…

“Curious that you’re alone.” said a light, airy voice from behind her. She turned to see Luna, barefoot, her long hair moving slightly with the breeze as she took a seat next to Aria.

“I find it easier to study without distractions.” Aria said even though she wasn’t getting much studying done at all.

“I suppose.” Luna replied, “I just thought since you used to be so desperate for friends that you would want to be with them all the time now that you have them.”

“I wasn’t desperate.” Aria scoffed, thinking back to her first three years at Hogwarts, “Lonely yes. But not desperate.”

“Whatever you say.”

“It’s not like I didn’t have friends before Harry, Ron, and Hermione.” Aria said, feeling the need to defend herself, “You and I were friends. We still are.”

“That’s nice.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t really spend time with you last year.” Aria said, now feeling very bad for Luna.

“That’s alright.” Luna said casually before looking over at Aria’s notes, “Astronomy. I quite like the stars.”

“I do too.” said Aria, thankful for the change of subject, “I just don’t like being tested on them.”

“It’s funny that stars have names, isn’t it?” Luna asked, dreamily, “They aren’t really that special. They are just a bunch of twinkly lights. Pretty, but not diverse enough for names. My father said they are the tears from an ancient Gallof.”

“A Gallof?” Aria asked with furrowed brows, “Actually, you know what, I don’t even want to know. But Luna, not all stars are exactly the same, I don’t think. They’re like snowflakes.”

“Then why don’t we give snowflakes names?” 

“Because they melt.” Aria said, still very confused.

“Stars burn out.” Luna said, staring off dreamily.

“What’s your point?”

“We pay far too much attention to detail sometimes, I think.” Luna said.

“How so?” Aria asked.

“We dwell on things like the names of stars and how many legs a spider has.” Luna said, “Why does it matter? Why can’t we focus on things that are present and actually affect us?”

“Well some people find it interesting.” Aria said.

“I suppose.” Luna said, before turning to Aria, “But in the end, the star will burn out and the spider will die. And life will go on.”

“What does this have to do with anything?” Aria asked.

“My feet are a bit cold.” Luna said, standing up, “Unfortunately, all my shoes have mysteriously disappeared. I suspect nargles are behind it.”

“Wait what?”

“I think I’ll go look for them now.” Luna said, and then she skipped off back towards the castle.

“Luna?” Aria called after her, “Luna!” But Luna was now out of earshot. Aria sighed and put her back against the tree. She was trying to figure out exactly what Luna meant. Did she know how Aria felt about Cedric and Harry? The only people Aria had told was Ginny and Hermione.

Lately, Aria’s mind, or rather her heart, had really been on her Cedric and Harry situation. She really liked Harry, no matter how hard she tried not to. She tried to turn her heart away from him but she always ended up imagining herself in her arms. She knew exactly what was holding her back: Cedric. But like Luna said, focus on the present and move on. At least, that’s the useful bits that Aria got out of that. Maybe she was too scared to move on. Like if she did, it was an insult to Cedric’s memory. But, then again, her heart was telling her the opposite.

“Where have you been?” Hermione shouted as Aria entered the portrait hole to the Gryffindor Common Room that evening, “I asked you to test me on History of Magic?”

“I-I’m sorry.” Aria said, knowing Hermione had been really stressed about the O.W.L.s. “I completely forgot.”

“Nevermind.” Hermione said coldly, “I had Harry test me.” She then turned, her hair whisking around, and she was off up the stairs to the girl’s dormitory.

“Alright.” Aria said, noticing Ron and Harry on the floor by the fireplace.

“She’s scary isn’t she.” Ron said as Aria took a seat on the couch behind them. Aria’s thoughts couldn’t be further from Hermione, however.

“Why do you think we name stars?” Aria asked, her voice sounding deep in thought.

“So we can have a map of the sky?” Harry answered, closing his book and turning to her.

“Yeah so you can find your way by broom or boat.” Ron replied. Both boys looked confused.

“Right.” said Aria, wishing she had brought that up to Luna to see what she would’ve said to it.

“Why do you ask?” Harry asked.

“I just had the strangest conversation with Luna.” Aria replied.

“Loony, you mean?” Ron joked, “There’s a reason for the name.”

“She was wrong about pretty much everything she said.” Aria said, “But in a way, it makes sense to me.”

“Not following.” said Harry.

“You speak Loony?” asked Ron.

“Harry.” Aria said, feeling brave and inspired by Luna, “Would you want to study with me in the library tomorrow for Transfiguration?”

“Sure.” said Harry, looking surprised at Aria’s sudden boost in energy.

“Well I could use a bit of extra help as well.” Ron suggested and Aria had not been expecting this. She had been hoping to get some alone time with Harry.

“Actually, Ron,” Aria started to lie uncomfortably, “I think Hermione wanted you to test her on Charms tomorrow.”

“I don’t know why she has us test her.” Ron said irritably, “She ends up grabbing the book back to make sure she 100% got the answer wrong or right. She may as well test herself.”

“Okay well I’m going to bed.” Aria said quickly before Ron could say anything more. The two boys watched as Aria briskly went up the stairs to the girls' dormitory. When she arrived in the room, Hermione was reading her History of Magic textbook in her bed.

“Hermione, Ron said he’d test you on Charms tomorrow instead of me.” Aria said, smiling at the thought of having time with Harry tomorrow.

“Bailing on me again, are you?” Hermione said in a sarcastic, cool tone.  
\-----------------------------------------------------  
The next afternoon, Aria waited patiently in the library for Harry. Aria sat at the small wooden table by the back window. She had her Transfiguration textbook out along with her wand. About ten minutes past before she decided to open the book up and skim a few chapters. The clock on the wall ticked away as Aria’s hopes got lower and lower. She hated the feeling of looking like a loner in the library. It gave her flashbacks to her first three years at Hogwarts when she was almost always alone. 

She had skimmed through the whole book before she looked at the clock again. It had been 45 minutes and Aria came to the conclusion that Harry had forgotten about her. Defeated, she closed the book and put her wand back in her pocket. She looked up to see Cho Chang half covered by a bookshelf. As they moved more into Aria’s visions she saw that Cho was with Ginny’s ex-boyfriend Michael Corner. Aria avoided their eyes as the two left the library. She felt guilty in the satisfaction seeing that Cho had moved on with another guy gave her. If only Harry actually cared about her enough to show up.

“Aria. Hey.” said a deep voice.

“Dean? Hi.” Aria said, being brought out of her thoughts to see Dean Thomas standing over her.

“Waiting for someone?” Dean asked, taking the seat Aria had saved for Harry. Had he seen her sitting by herself for 45 minutes?

“No.” Aria said, face pink, “I mean, I was, but I don’t think he’ll show up.”

“Oh.” said Dean.

“Harry was supposed to help me study for Transfiguration.” Aria giggled nervously, trying to pretend it didn’t bother her.

“I can help if you like?” Dean asked, surprising Aria.

“No it’s alright.” she said, still hoping Harry would maybe show up with some great excuse as to why he wasn’t there, “I studied enough waiting for him.” Dean nodded but didn’t leave. 

The two sat there awkwardly for a minute or two before Dean said, “So, do you think the DA will ever start up again?”

Aria decided to get her mind off Harry and have a conversation with Dean, “Well how can it with Umbridge still here?”

“I dunno.” said Dean, “I just really liked it, though. It made me feel safer and stronger than before. So if I ever do go up against You-Know-Who or a Death Eater, I’ll stand a chance.”

“Yeah. Hopefully, it doesn’t have to come to that though.” said Aria said before noticing a comic book sticking out of Dean’s bag, “What’s that?”

“Loony Nonby vs Cornish Pixie.” Dean smiled, taking the comic book out of his bag and showing to Aria, “It’s really interesting. Have you read it?”

“No, but I’ve heard of it.” Aria replied, “Not a fan, sorry.”

“Wow that hurt.” Dean laughed, “Okay, but you have to admit the art is good, right?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty good.” said Aria flipping through the pages.

“I want to do that someday.” Dean said with a smile. Aria put the comic book back on the table.

“Draw?”

“Draw comic books, yeah.” said Dean, “Look, I started working on one myself.”

Dean then pulled out a few pages of parchment from his bag. Aria took them in her hands to see various drawings all over them. “Is-is that-”

“Filch, yeah.”

“That’s perfect likeness.” Aria laughed, “Is this what you told McGonagall you wanted to do career-wise?”

“Well...no.” Dean said nervously when Aria handed him the drawings back.

“So you don’t want to do this full time?” Aria asked, confused.

“I do.” Dean said quickly, “But I figured I’d say a more respectable career.”

“Being a comic book artist is a respectable career.” Aria replied.

Dean’s face lit up. “You think so?”

“Yeah.” said Aria with a smile, “Especially if you’re that good.”

“Thanks.” Dean said brightly, “What career path are you going to follow?”

“No idea.” Aria said dreadingly, “I mean, I had my meeting with McGonagall yesterday and I told her healing.”

“So you want to be a healer?”

“I kind of just said it to have something to say.” Aria shrugged.

“But now that you’ve said it, are you going to follow it?” Dean asked.

“I haven’t really had much time to think about it.” Aria said, truthfully. The last thing on her mind this year was what she would do after Hogwarts. “I kind of just said it because I used to assist Madam Pomfrey my second year in the hospital wing. “

“You don’t like healing or-”

“I do.” Aria said, “It’s just that I have to get an Outstanding in potions and I’m not sure I can do that.”

“When’s you’re potion O.W.L.S?” Dean asked, “Maybe I can help you study?” Aria smiled and nodded and Dean took out his potions textbook.

Meanwhile, Harry was rushing to the library. He had completely forgotten to meet Aria what with his last Occlumency lesson with Snape being what it was. He rushed into the library, knowing Aria would understand. However, he was surprised to see Aria talking and laughing with Dean Thomas. Harry quickly hid behind a bookcase when he saw them and his face dropped. He was disappointed in himself for missing his study session for Aria but also confused as to how Aria had replaced him that quickly. He decided not to bother her, she was probably angry with him anyway. And so, Harry sadly left the library.  
\-----------------------------------------------  
The following week was exhilarating. Aria was never so stressed out in her life. Monday’s charm exam went well, she thought. She had remembered the levitation charm and the cheering charm on the written portion. When it came to the practical exam, she successfully made an egg cup do cartwheels. She was thankful that Professor Flitwick had been such a great teacher and one of her favorites in her first year.

In Care of Magical Creatures she was not so lucky. Hagrid had always been a great teacher but most of the creatures on the test were more contemporary than the rare ones Hagrid liked to teach about. Aria could not remember for the life of her what to give a sick unicorn or how to handle a bowtruckle. Good thing she wasn’t planning on taking any higher classes in Care of Magical Creatures or she would have been out of luck. She was also certain she received a P for poor on this subject and Divination. 

Aria had to read the test proctors future with tea leaves. She had never had to do so without being able to look through the book to identify the different omens. She had to admit she didn’t really study all that well for Divination as it was her least favorite subject and according to Hermione the least practical. Aria simply started naming off the omens she could remember and hoped that one of them was correct.

She struggled in her potions exam since she knew it was the most important subject for healing. Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration went rather well for her in her opinion. Luckily, Aria was not one of the students who had to face a boggart in her Defense Against the Dark Arts practical exam. Not because she couldn’t defend herself against it, but because she didn’t want anyone knowing her greatest fear.

On Thursday, Aria almost fell asleep during her History of Magic exam. It was her last test of the year and she couldn’t have been more excited for it to be over. Her brain was fried from all the previous tests. With each sentence, she could hear Professor Binns teaching it and since she was not a stranger to falling asleep during his lessons, the material became a trigger for her heavy eyes. International Confederation of Wizards, Yep this lesson definitely put me to sleep she thought. When Aria looked up to see Hermione, flying through the exam, she felt motivated to answer at least all the questions so that the test would be over quicker.

As she bubbled in her second to last answer, she heard a booming sound coming from somewhere in the castle. She looked up. Umbridge stood facing the students in the Great Hall as all the quills scratched quickly. Umbridge had not seemed to notice anything and neither did any of the students. Aria put her head back down and tried to focus on the last question. Boom! Aria looked up again. This time Harry had looked up as well and Aria heard the sound getting closer. More and more students began to notice this and Umbridge’s calm face turned to embarrassment. Everyone watched as her heels quickly clicked through the middle aisle of desks and towards the door of the Great Hall.

The students watched in silence as Umbridge opened the large doors of the Great Hall. There was nothing outside of it much to her amazement. Suddenly, a tiny blue spark flew from down the stairs and around Umbridge before exploding into a medium sized firework over the heads of the students. Aria smiled and looked to Hermione who looked like she wanted to finish her test. Then, shouting could be heard, echoing from the halls, and before anyone could realize what was going on, Fred and George flew past Umbridge and into the Great Hall on broomsticks.

The students cheered and their test papers flew from their desks and up into the air as Fred and George threw more multi-colored fireworks into the rafters of the castle. Aria stood up along with the other students and she cherished the smile on Harry’s face. What was even more interesting was the look on Umbridge’s. A mix of shock and worry. Aria stood by Harry and Ron who clapped a cheered for Fred and George along with the other fifth years. More fireworks fell from the sky and small sparks flew down to the students level and mini fireworks went off around them. Aria felt happy, something she hadn’t felt too often with her father still in St. Mungo’s. Umbridge waddled back down the aisle briskly, growing more and more red as she ducked out of the way of the numerous fireworks. 

Students laughed as the various small sparks began to attack Umbridge and many of the Slytherin including Draco, Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle. Aria turned to see Hermione, who had previously been searching the floor of parchment for her exam, finally joining in on the fun. Harry smiled satisfyingly as Filch ran in with a mop to try and assist Umbridge who looked very embarrassed. Aria looked up through the sprinkles of pink sparked to see that Fred and George had ceased zipping around the room and were now flying still. Fred gave George a thumbs up and Fred threw a rather large firework down to the ground. Aria, Harry, Hermione, and Ron watched as it exploded into a giant fiery dragon that chased Umbridge into the entrance hall.

The students watched as the firework dragon appeared to swallow Umbridge whole before exploding into a dozen different fireworks that went off in all directions, smashing every proclamation hanging on the wall. The students did not wait for the smoke to clear to see if Umbridge was okay, they ran out of the hall and into the courtyard following Fred and George who flew above them up into the afternoon sky. More students from other years had come out to see what all the commotion was about. Fred and George threw one last firework into the sky that exploded into a shiny, fiery “W” and the students cheered and cheered. Aria’s cheeks were hurting from smiling. She turned, looking for Harry’s smile, but he was on the ground, Hermione kneeling beside him.

“Harry? Harry!” she was saying as Aria made her way over to the two of them. Ron had not yet noticed.

“What’s happened?” Aria shouted over the booming of the “W” firework and the cheers of the crowd.

“Sirius.” Harry said urgently, “He’s in trouble!”


	23. Out of the Fire

“It’s just like Mr. Ashborn.” Harry said as he rushed up the moving staircase towards the Gryffindor Common Room. Hermione, Ron, and Aria tried to keep up behind him, “I saw him. Aria, you remember me telling you about the door I’ve been dreaming about? I couldn’t remember where I’d seen it before. Sirius said Voldemort was after something. Something he didn’t have last time, in the Department of Mysteries.”

“Harry, please, just listen!” Hermione called after him.

“No Hermione!” Harry called back, still focusing on his steps rather than his friends, “I’ve got to save him!”

“You?” Ron asked but only Aria heard him.

“But what if Voldemort wanted you to see this?” Hermione asked, her voice sounding worried, “What if he’s only hurting Sirius because he’s trying to get to you?”

“What if he is?” Harry asked, finally stopping and looking at them, “I’m supposed to just let him die? Hermione, he’s the only family I’ve got.”

“What do we do?” Aria sighed.

“We’ll have to use the Floo Network.” Harry replied.

“Umbridge has the chimneys under surveillance.” Hermione said.

“Not all of them.” said Aria, remembering the fireplace in Umbridge’s office. She had seen flew powder next to it when Umbridge was interrogating her.

“Is everything alright?” said a voice from behind them. The four of them turned to see Ginny and Luna not far behind her, “I saw you all rushing away.”

“I don’t have time.” Harry said, turning to leave.

“Hello everyone.” Luna said dreamily, and when no one followed him, Harry waited, annoyed, “Ginny, you forgot your bag.” Luna handed Ginny her bag and Ginny gave the rest the rest of them an apologetic look.

“Maybe they could help?” Ron suggested much to Harry’s surprise.

“Help with what?” Luna asked.

“Harry needs to get into Umbridge’s office.” Ron explained and Harry sighed irritably.

“We can clear the corridor for you, Luna and I.” Ginny offered, not even needing to ask why, “So no one will come snooping.”

“Yeah and I’ll distract Umbridge.” said Ron.

“And I’ll guard the door.” Aria said, wanting to help too.

“Did you do well on your Astronomy exam?” Luna asked, her wand behind her ear.

“Luna, this really isn’t the time.” Aria replied.

“You know what, fine.” Harry said, not having time to argue, “Let’s go.”  
\--------------------  
Aria, Harry, Ron, and Hermione left to change out of their robes before going down to Umbridge’s office. Hermione and Harry went in under the cloak of invisibility while the other left to do their job. Aria stayed outside the door. She couldn’t see around the wall how Ginny and Luna were doing keeping people out of the corridor. All she could do was wait anxiously.

“Oh hello Aria.” Dean said next to her and she jumped, “How did your exam go?”

“Dean, I’d love to tell you.” Aria said, catching her breath, “But this really isn’t the time.”

“What are you doing outside Umbridge’s office?” Dean inquired, innocently.

“Erm-” before she could come up with an excuse, grunts of Ginny and Luna could be heard from around the corner as well as disarming spells and jinxes. Aria’s eyes widened.

“What do you suppose is going on over there?” Dean asked.

“Dean, you really should leave.” Aria said, knocking on the door to Umbridge’s office, trying to wan Hermione and Harry, “Like, now.” But it was too late. Umbridge, covered in ash and soot rounded the corner with her wand held out. Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Pansy came from behind her. Crabbe held Ron and Ginny by their collars, their wands in his hand. Malfoy had Luna and... Neville, for reasons unknown to Aria.

“Drop them.” Umbridge said, voice cracking as she pointed her wand at Dean and Aria who had since pointed theirs back. Dean only dropped his when Aria did first. “Parkinson, be a dear.”

“Nice to see you again.” said Pansy, pocketing Dean and Aria’s wands. She pointed her wands at their backs and followed Umbridge inside to her office along with everyone else. Harry and Hermione were kneeled by the fire and Aria knew they hadn’t got her warning.

“You were going to Dumbledore, weren't you?” Umbridge said sternly as Hermione and Harry jumped up. Umbridge trotted briskly over to him and dragged him by the collar to a chair. Pansy disarmed Hermione and pulled her over to Dean and Aria.

“Answer me!” Umbridge shouted. “Were you going to Dumbledore?!”

“No.” Harry replied and Aria winced as Umbridge slapped him across the face.

“Liar.”

“You sent for me, Headmistress?” said a deep, drawn-out voice from the doorway.

“Snape, yes.” Umbridge said, showing no remorse for her actions, “The time has come for answers, whether he wants to give them to me or not. Have you brought the Veritaserum?”

“I'm afraid you've used up all my stores interrogating students.” Snape replied and Aria sighed in relief, “The last of it on Miss Ashborn. Unless you wish to poison him…And I assure you, I would have the greatest sympathy if you did. ...I cannot help you.”

As Snape turned to leave, Harry called after him. “He's got Padfoot! He's got Padfoot at the place where it's hidden!”

“Padfoot?” Umbridge asked eagerly, “What is Padfoot? Where what is hidden? What is he talking about, Snape?”

Snape paused for a moment, “No idea.” With that, Snape was gone along with their final hope.

“Very well. You give me no choice, Potter.” said Umbridge, turning back to Harry, “As this is an issue of Ministry security… ...you leave me with...no alternative. The Cruciatus Curse ought to loosen your tongue.”

“That's illegal!” Aria shouted, taking a step only to be pulled back by Pansy.

“What Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him.” Umbridge said, seemingly talking herself into the act. She pointed her wand directly at Harry. Aria could feel herself sweating in anxiety. Umbridge opened her mouth but before she could get the curse out, Hermione interrupted.

“Tell her, Harry!” Hermione shouted.

“Tell me what?” Umbridge asked eagerly. Ron, Harry, and Aria shared confused expressions.

“Well, if you won't tell her where it is...I will.” said Hermione, with tears in her eyes.

“Where what is?” asked Umbridge.

“Dumbledore's secret weapon.” Hermione lied, surprising Aria and Harry.

“Take us to it.” Umbridge said, with a grin creeping up on her face.

“No.” Hermione replied, “Just you.”

“You aren’t in a place to negotiate.” said Umbridge.

“It’s not to be seen by students.” Hermione lied impressively, “It could be too much for them. Besides, the fewer people knowing Dumbledore has been building a secret weapon under the ministry's nose the better.”

Umbridge thought for a moment, probably too excited to figure out that Hermione’s reasoning had a fault, “Alright. You and I will go. Potter too.”

“But, shouldn’t we-” Draco started.

“I am more than capable of handling myself Mr. Malfoy.” Umbridge said. She then took Harry by the collar and dragged him up from the chair. Pansy threw Hermione to Umbridge and Umbridge took Hermione and Harry out of the room.

Some time passed and the DA members shared glances trying to figure out a plan in no words. Aria, whose back was to the window, turned to see Hermione and Harry leading Umbridge into the Forbidden Forest and wondered what Hermione’s plan could possibly be. She had only entertained so many ideas when Ron spoke up.

“Crabbe. I’m real hungry.” said Ron, “Can I just have a pastille from my pocket?”

“Oh bugger off.” Crabbe growled. Ron sighed and Crabbe spoke again, “Pastille, you say? Don’t mind if I do.” Crabbed laughed and Goyle with him as Crabbe took the pastille out of Ron’s pocket. That’s when Ron smirked and Aria noticed that it wasn’t just any pastille. It was one of Fred and George’s-

“Yuck!” After only one bite Crabbe’s face had turned greenish-white and he began puking all over Umbridge’s pink carpet. Ron took his opportunity and grabbed his and Ginny’s wand from Crabbe’s pocket. Pansy raised her wand at him.

“Expelliarmus!” Ron shouted and Pansy’s wand went flying, allowing Dean and Aria to grab their wands while Crabbe lay puking.

“Expelli-” Malfoy started.

“Furnunculus!” shouted Aria at Malfoy and bright red pimples began to erupt on his face again and he was more panicked the second time around knowing how long it takes to get rid of them. Aria smirked not noticing Goyle.

“Stup-”

“Stupefy!” called Ginny and Goyle was knocked to the ground. Aria looked to see that Luna and Neville had also regained their wands and taken down Pansy as Crabbe continued to puke.

“Impedimenta!” Neville shouted at Malfoy as the six of them ran out the door. 

“Alright, let’s go!” Ron led the way out of the entrance hall with Luna, Ginny, Aria, Neville, and Dean behind him.

“Where?” Dean asked.

“Last I saw, they were heading for the Forbidden Forest.” Aria called.

“Why?” asked Ginny.

“I think I have some idea.” replied Ron.


	24. Fight and Flight

Ron, Aria, Neville, Luna, Ginny, and Dean ran down the hill towards the Forbidden Forest as fast as their feet could take them, each clutching their wands tightly. Aria did not know what they were going to do once they reached the edge. It would be very hard to find Harry and Hermione in the dark forest and even harder not to be spotted by Umbridge. Luckily, Harry and Hermione had reached the edge of the forest just as the six reached them.

“How'd you get away?” Hermione asked, her face seemed dirtier than before and her hair untamed.

“Puking Pastilles.” Ginny said, “It wasn't pretty.”

“Told them I was hungry, wanted some sweets.” Ron smiled as he handed Harry and Hermione their wands, “They told me to bugger off and ate the lot themselves.”

“That was clever, Ron.” Hermione said, sounding surprised.

“Has been known to happen.” Ron joked.

“It was brilliant.” added Aria.

“So how are we getting to London?” asked Dean, probably noticing the anxious look on Harry’s face.

“Look, it's not that I don't appreciate everything you've done, all of you,” Harry said, “but I've got you into enough trouble as it is.”

“Dumbledore's Army's supposed to be about doing something real.” Neville said, “Or was that all just words to you?”

“Maybe you don't have to do this all by yourself, mate.” Ron said, taking a step closer to Harry.

Harry thought for a moment then said as he turned to leave, “We’ve wasted enough time already. Ron, Hermione, and I will go. That’s it.”

“What?” Aria exclaimed catching up to him as Harry walked back towards the castle, “You’re going to bench me?”

“I don’t have time to argue with you.” Harry said coldly and Aria paused.

“Harry, we could be a big help.” said Dean.

“Dean, I’m going to be honest. I don’t even know what you’re doing here or where you came from.” Harry said stopping and facing them, “And Luna, Neville, this is far too advanced for you. Ginny, you’re too young.”

“And what about me?” Aria challenged, hands on her hips.

“It’s just too dangerous. Okay?” Harry replied irritably.

“If this is as advanced as you say, maybe we could use as many people as we can get.” Hermione said, “You know they’re bound to have a lot more than three Death Eaters with them. We’ll be outnumbered.”

“Alright fine. I don’t have time to argue with all of you.” Harry sighed, “So how are we going to get to London?” Everyone looked around and when no one had any ideas, Luna spoke up.

“We fly, of course.” said Luna in an airy voice.  
\-------------------------  
It was a strange yet peaceful experience to fly on the back of a thestral, for Aria could not see the winged creature which Harry described as a skeleton like horse. Not being able to see what she was riding on as she flew through the air was the closest thing Aria could think of to actually being able to fly herself. It was scary at first but after a while, it was peaceful. She was the last in a line of the seven others. Harry led with Luna and Neville, both who could see the thestrals, right behind him. Then there were Ron and Hermione. Hermione looked nervous but not as scared as Ron who kept fiddling with his hands trying to find a place to hold on. Dean and Ginny were closest to Aria and right in front of her, both seemingly determined to reach the ministry although Dean looked a bit sick. 

As they soared through the clouds, the blue, early night sky, became darker and until it was almost black. It wasn’t long before they could see again because they reached the lights of London. The trip gave Aria a long time to think about why Harry would want her to stay behind. She came to the conclusion that she was still a bit of an outsider to the original core three of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Deep down she knew this of course, but it still hurt.

When they reached the Ministry of Magic and dismounted their thestrals, Harry took them to an old, red telephone booth and somehow the eight of them all managed to fit inside. Harry punched in a number and it took them down into the greenish blue-lit atrium of the Ministry. Harry seemed to know where he was going and no one asked any questions when he led them to a lift at the end of the hall past a large fountain. Aria found it strange that there was no security here. They compiled into the lift and when it reached the ground floor a female voice spoke over an intercom in the elevator: “Department of Mysteries”. Harry immediately ran out of the elevator and stopped when he reached a large, dark door.

“This is it.” he said and opened the door. Harry cast lumos and the others followed suit. The room was dark and seemed to have no end. The only light came from the shelves upon shelves of glowing blue orbs. When the eight entered, the door closed behind them. Aria turned when she heard the door shut but the door was gone. She turned back to see that Ginny noticed this as well and had a nervous expression on her face.

They followed Harry as he walked briskly down the aisles, muttering the aisle numbers to himself. “Ninety-two, ninety-three- ninety-four, ninety-five…” Harry stopped, “He should be here.” But Sirius was nowhere to be found. Aria looked to Hermione whose face did not say “I-told-you-so” but was rather empathetic. 

“Harry.” said Neville and Harry, Hermione, and Aria turned to see Neville looking at a blue orb on the shelf. “It’s got your name on it.”

Harry, intrigued, approached it slowly before taking it off the shelf and into his hands. From where Aria stood, she could see that bits of white swirled around the blue but she couldn’t make much detail out. Suddenly the orb began to speak. 

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches…” The orb seemed to say in Trelawny's voice, “ born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…”

Aria, like many of the others were focusing so much attention on this that they did not see the man in a Death Eaters mask approaching them. But Hermione did. “Harry.” she called, her voice shaking. Harry held the prophecy to his side in one hand and his lit wand in the other. He took a step so he was in front of the Aria and the others and so he was facing the Death Eater.

“Where’s Sirius?” Harry demanded.

“You know…” said a cool voice Aria knew, “You really should learn the difference between dreams…” The Death Eater took off his mask to reveal himself as Lucius Malfoy, “...and reality.”


	25. The Department of Mysteries

“You saw only what the Dark Lord wanted you to see.” said Lucius. His face was pale and pointed and he had sleek blonde hair that was like his son’s but much longer. “Now, hand me the prophecy.”

“If you do anything to us, I'll break it.” Harry said confidently but Aria knew that truthfully he was scared.

“He knows how to play.” laughed a female voice who came into view on Lucius’s right side while another Death Eater took to his left. “Itty, bitty baby. Potter.”

“Bellatrix Lestrange.” Neville said, fear and anger in his eyes.

“Neville Longbottom, is it?” Bellatrix cackled, “How's Mum and Dad?”

“Better, now they're about to be avenged!” Neville pushed past Aria with his wand raised but Harry held him back.

“Now, let's everybody just calm down...shall we?” Lucius said, “All we want is that prophecy.”

“What do you want with it?” asked Aria, trying to buy time for the eight of them to come up with a plan.

“Never you mind.” said the Death Eater to Lucius’s left. He took his mask off to reveal a younger wizard who looked to be in his 20s. His hair was short and brown and his eyes, green. His nose had an arching bridge and pointed downwards.

“Venunus.” Harry said coldly before turning to his friends, “He was there when Cedric…” Harry could never finish talking about Cedric’s death in the presence of Aria for fear of it being too painful for her. 

“Aria, is it?” Venunus sneered, “I’ve been dying to meet you.” Aria’s sweaty palm tightened around her wand.

“Don’t talk to her.” Harry snapped.

“Why did you want to meet me?” Aria asked, her voice shaking.

“Dad never told you?” Venunus laughed mockingly, “I’m your brother.”

“You’re lying.” Aria said, feeling her face grow hot.

“I’d love to catch up but we’re here for that prophecy in your boyfriend’s hand.” Venunus said with a gloating smile, knowing he had got to Aria.

“Why did Voldemort need me to come and get this?” Harry asked, looking at Lucius. Aria looked around to see that there were more Death Eaters surrounding them.

“You dare speak his name?” said Bellatrix, raising her voice so it echoed the endless room and a few prophecies fell off of the shelf next to her and shattered into a blue cloud, “You filthy half-blood!”

“Funny.” said Harry, mocking her, “Bet you didn’t know he was half-blood as well?”

“Why you-” Bellatrix began with her curved wand raised before Lucius stopped her.

“It's all right. He's just a curious lad, aren't you?” said Lucius, “Prophecies can only be retrieved by those about whom they are made. Which is lucky for you, really. Haven't you always wondered what was the reason for the connection between you and the Dark Lord? Why he was unable to kill you when you were just an infant? Don't you want to know the secret of your scar? All the answers are there, Potter, in your hand. All you have to do is give it to me. Then I can show you everything.” Lucius held his empty hand out to Harry.

“I've waited 14 years.” Harry said.

“I know.”

“I guess I can wait a little longer.” Harry said, “Now!” As soon as he said this Harry cast Stupefy and Lucius was thrown backward and simultaneously, Neville shot a spell at one of the shelves and prophecies began to fall down and the aisle was covered in a large blue cloud.

“Run!” Ron shouted. Aria could not see but she felt someone take her hand and she began to run with that person down another aisle. When they cleared the cloud, Aria could see that it was Dean who had her hand. Luna, Ginny, and Ron were running with them and for a moment it had appeared that they lost the Death Eaters...and Harry, Hermione, and Neville. Just then, a Death Eater appeared at the end of the aisle to cut them off.

“Levicorpus!” shouted Luna and the Death Eater shot up into the air and did not appear to come back down, although the kids did not have time to pay too close attention to this as they continued running.

“Reducto!” Ginny shouted at a Death Eater Aria had not even noticed had appeared behind them. But the Death Eater quickly deflected it, surprising Ginny.

“Stupefy!” shouted the Death Eater and Ginny went flying backward. Luna ran to her aid as Ron put the Death Eater in a Body-Binding Curse. Just when they got rid one Death Eater, two showed up, one of which was the one Luna had hit with Levicorpus.

“Confundo!” The one Death Eater shouted, too quickly for Ron to react and Ron fell to the floor. Aria ran to help him up as Dean covered her.

“Stupefy!” Dean shouted, and the Death Eater was thrown back and did not get back up. But the Death Eater that Luna had hit was still there, Dean began to duel him as Aria helped Ron up. Ginny and Luna were nowhere to be seen. Then, Venunus appeared in a cloud of black smoke in front of Aria with a sneer.

“Levicorpus!” Aria shouted before Venunus could even say anything and he shot upwards. Just then, the Death Eater Dean was dueling shot a purple spell like a whip out at Aria.

“Protego!” she shouted, deflecting the spell, “Reducto!” The Death Eater disappeared before the spell could hit him and Dean and Aria began running again, dragging Ron behind them. 

“That one.” shouted Dean as they ran, “That was Avery. I recognized his tattoo from the Daily Prophet.” As they ran they found Luna helping Ginny, who was limping, down the aisle next to them. Then, Venunus appeared in front of Luna.

“Luna, lookout!” Aria called from the aisle over but it was too late. Venunus had punched Luna in the face and Luna and Ginny toppled over.

“Petrificus Totalus!” Aria shouted before Venunus could do any more harm to her friends but Venunus simply smiled as he deflected the jinx. Aria knew she was in trouble as she didn’t have the element of surprise anymore. Venunus laughed knowing this.

He opened his mouth and held his wand up, “Avada-”

But before he could finish Dean had shouted “Stupefy!” and Venunus went flying backward allowing Luna and Ginny to get back to Dean, Aria, and Ron. “We have to get to the door! Ron? Ron!”Aria looked to see Ron, wandering down the aisle in total confusion, babbling with a dopey smile on his face.

“I’ve got him.” said Aria, grabbing Ron by the wrist, “Let’s go!” Dean, Luna, and Aria ran as fast as they could with Ron struggling behind them and Ginny slowing Luna down. Eventually, they found the door in which they thought they entered through. When they pushed it open, they quickly sealed it behind them and turned to find that they were in a circular room with doors all around them. Hermione was on the floor, unconscious, and Harry and Neville were kneeled beside her. Luna helped Ginny to the ground. In the better lighting this room provided, Aria could see that Ginny’s ankle was broken.

“Harry!” Dean exclaimed when he saw him.

“Hermione!” Aria said, running to Hermione’s side, “What’s happened to Hermione?”

“She’s alibe.” said Neville, who clutched his nose.

“What’s happened to you?” asked Ginny, rubbing her ankle as if that would make the pain go away.

“We don’t have time. Let’s go!” Harry called and he put his wand in his pocket so he could help Neville lift Hermione.

“Harry.” Ron laughed uncontrollably. “What’s that funny thing your carrying? What is that big blue ball?”

“Do you know how to do undo that?” Harry asked.

“No, but I figured Hermione would.” said Aria just as the door from the Hall of Prophecies opened to reveal Bellatrix, Avery, and another Death Eater whose mask was now off and Aria recognized to be Mulciber.

“There they are!” Bellatrix shouted.

“Ron run!” Aria shouted, pulling at Ron who wouldn’t budge. 

“Stupefy!” Aria turned to see that Luna had been stunned and knocked out as she hit the wall.

“Hey that’s not nice!” Ron said, before sinking down to the floor.

“Ron run!” Aria begged, pulling him. She kneeled down next to him and so did Ginny who had hobbled her way over to them.

“We have to fix him or he’ll ne-” she started.

“Stupefy!” Mucliber shouted and his spell hit Ginny right in the face and she was also knocked out cold.

“Ginny!” Aria cried, but when she looked back from Ginny she could see Bellatrix Lestrange standing over her. 

“Got you now!” she said with a maniacal laugh. Aria found her wand but before she could do anything Bellatrix had disarmed her without even saying anything.

“Stupefy!” Dean shouted from behind Bellatrix.

“Protego!” she said, turning to him and shielding herself and the two enlocked in a duel. Aria looked but could not find her wand. She stood up in time to see Mulciber behind Harry.

“Levicorpus!” Mulciber shouted. Harry wasn’t going to see it in time and Aria didn’t have her wand to shield him so she did the only thing she could think of. She jumped in front of the spell and was instantly sent flying upwards. Her back hit the ceiling and she groaned in pain and she stayed there for just a moment, the ground looking her in the eye. Then, she screamed as she fell to the floor. She put her hands out to break her fall and her right arm hit the ground before left. She winced as she heard her right arm break.

“Aria!” she heard Harry shout. Aria lay, holding her arm, not able to move. 

“Petrificus Totalus!” she heard Bellatrix’s voice shout and before she knew it Dean was lying frozen next to her.

“Dean!” she cried, making it to her knees. Aria looked around to see what was happening. Neville was being cornered by Bellatrix and Harry was dueling another Death Eater. Ginny, Luna, and Hermione lay unconscious in various places in the room and Ron was laughing uncontrollably in the corner. Aria grasped her arm as she slid across the floor over to Ron.

“Aria, I have to tell you a secret!” Ron laughed, leaning in closer to Aria, completely boggled.

“Ron I don’t have- “ but before she could finish, Ron had shoved his lips against Aria’s, much to her surprise. She pushed Ron off with her good hand and he began to laugh uncontrollably again, “Ron! What are you-Harry.” 

Aria looked to see Harry, with the Prophecy held high running through one of the doorways followed by Bellatrix and the other Death Eater. She managed to stand up and made eye-contact with Neville. It was now only Harry against two Death Eaters and who knew how many more were on their way. Aria scanned the ground and found her wand next to an incapacitated Luna. With Neville following her, the two ran after Harry, through the still empty doorway.


	26. Beyond the Veil

When Aria and Neville crossed the threshold of the door, there was no ground and they began to fall fast as the door shut behind them. Right before they reach the ground, their momentum was momentarily slowed and they hit the ground with little to no pain.

“Neville! Aria!” Harry called, running over to them and helping them up, “Where were they? I just saw them.” 

Aria looked around to see what Harry was talking about. There was no Death Eater in sight. They were standing in a stone pit with an archway right in the middle. 

“I don’t know.” said Aria, the pain in her arm increasing, “I saw them go in after you.”

Harry’s attention was no longer on Aria’s reply, however. He had begun to walk closer to the archway. “The voices, can you tell what they’re saying?”

“Voices?” Aria asked as she and Neville got closer to him, “Harry we should go back and get the others. Harry, please, it’s just an empty archway.” Suddenly, the cracking sound of apparitions could be heard around the room yet they could not see who had apparated.

“Get behind me.” Harry said urgently, “Both of you.” Aria and Neville obeyed, both pointing their wands at whatever may come at them. Suddenly, black smoke surrounded them in all directions. Aria didn’t know where to aim her wand let alone what to say. She felt someone grab her right arm and she winced. She closed her eyes in pain and when she opened them the smoke had cleared. She was now in the corner of the room, her wand gone and another wand to her neck. Neville was in the opposite corner. Bellatrix had her wand to his neck and he struggled against her. Ten other Death Eaters were positioned all around the room. Harry was left standing alone in front of the archway.

“So we meet again little sister.” said Venunus as he tightened his grip on Aria’s arm making her cry out as the white-hot pain shot from her arm to her whole body. Harry winced when he saw this, feeling scared and completely helpless. Aria watched as Lucius Malfoy used a bejeweled walking stick to make his way to Harry.

“Did you actually believe or were you truly naive enough to think that children stood a chance against us?” Lucius laughed, “I'll make this simple for you, Potter. Give me the prophecy now or watch your friends die.”

“Don’t give it to him, Harry!” Neville shouted and Bellatrix covered his mouth quickly with her long, bony fingers.

“You doubt us do you?” she laughed and threw him to the ground “Crucio!”

A red light shot from Bellatrix’s wand and Neville began to squirm and scream in agony and Bellatrix merely laughed. This all proved to be too much for Harry.

“Alright fine.” he said loudly and Bellatrix promptly lifted the curse off Neville. Neville lay panting and Bellatrix held her foot on his body as if to keep him there.

Harry’s eyes shot from Neville to Aria to Lucius. Lucius held his hand out, knowing he had one. Harry, reluctantly handed over the bright blue orb. As Lucius held the orb to the sky, gloating and causing the other Death Eaters to cheer, Aria could see a flash of white light in the corner of her eye and then another behind Lucius. The white light disappeared and Lucius Malfoy turned around to see Sirius.

“Get away from my Godson.” he said proudly, and punched Lucius right in the nose, knocking him off his feet. Aria felt Venunus’s grip tighten as another trail of white smoke whipped around the Death Eaters and knocked them all, including Venunus and Bellatrix, off their feet. Aria’s heart was pounding when she saw that the smoke had been Tonks. Venunus was getting up quickly.

“Stupefy!” Tonks shouted, her hair bright yellow, and Venunus was knocked against the wall.

“Tonks!” Aria shouted, running to her. Tonks grabbed her by her left arm and forced her to kneel with her behind a large rock.

“I’m gonna get you out of here, alright?” she said and Aria nodded as white lights flashed about the room. Then, Lupin had put Neville with Aria behind the rock and the two Order members went back to the fight. Aria peered over the rock to see several things happening at once. Lucius had dropped and broken the Prophecy in his fall, Kingsley Shacklebolt was dueling Rodolphus Lestrange and Augustus Rockwood at the same time, Antonin Dolohov hit Moody with an Impediment jinx, Bellatrix was dueling Tonks, and now Harry and Sirius were both dueling Lucius and Dolohov. Harry shielded a purple spell Dolohov shot at him before hitting Dolohov back with the Full Body-Bind Curse. Then, almost simultaneously Sirius won his duel with Lucius and Bellatrix won her duel with Tonks, both with the Impediment Jinx. Bellatrix then disapparated and apparated near Sirius and a streak of red shot at Sirius, nearly missing him and causing him to fall through the archway. Only, he did not fall through to the other side. It was like he had vanished.

“Sirius!” cried Harry, in shock. Lupin ran to Harry and Aria could not hear what was going on. All she knew was that Harry began crying and yelling and Lupin was restraining him. Kingsley had managed to cast an anti-Disapparation spell on the remaining Death Eaters. It seemed like all of them were there except for Venunus and Bellatrix. Neville turned to Aria whose eyes were filled with tears as she watched Harry get so emotional.

“Is…” Neville started, clutching his nose “Is he deb?” Was he? Aria didn’t even know. Harry was sure acting like he was. Aria stood up on instinct to go and talk to Harry, to comfort him, to see if he was okay. But just as she did so, Harry released himself from Lupin’s hold and ran out the door after Bellatrix.

“Harry, no!” Lupin shouted. He was about to follow Harry when he saw Tonks lying on the ground, badly injured and he changed his course to her. 

“Lupin…” Aria started, “Is Sirius...is he…”

“Yes.” he said, not able to look her in the eyes. “Go find the others.”

“But what about Harry?” Aria asked, tears falling down her face, “He went after Bellatrix.”

“Dumbledore has it handled.” Lupin said, his voice cracking, “I’ll help Tonks and Mad-Eye. Go and find the others.” 

“Come on, Aria.” Neville said, grabbing her by the left arm. She was still a bit in shock from Sirius’s death and Harry’s reaction as Neville led her to the door they had entered the room through though now it was on ground level. Aria snapped out of her trance-like state when they entered the circular room with the doors. Ginny sitting against the wall tending to an unconscious Hermione who had been propped against the wall with her. Luna was drawing an X of fire over a door with her wand and by the looks of it, she had done this to just about every other door. Dean was sitting with them attempting to keep a loony Ron from standing up.

“Aria! Neville!” exclaimed Ginny, “Are you alright?”

Aria shook her head, trying not to cry, “Sirius…”

“Sirius.” said Luna thoughtfully, “I believe that’s a name for a star.”

“Aria, what happened?” Dean asked, standing up. Aria knew Lupin had sent her up to the room on a mission and she would rather concentrate that then tempt her tears.

“We’re safe.” she said, “That’s all that matters. Dean, are you hurt?”

“No, I think I’m alright now.” he replied.

“Can you lift Hermione?”

“I think so.” Dean then went over to where an unconscious Hermione lay and he picked her up bridal style with much effort.

“Okay and Luna and Neville help Ginny.” Aria continued and they nodded and obeyed. “I’ll drag Ron.” Aria then, wiping any stray tears that might be on her face, went over to help Ron up.

“Why are you crying?” he laughed, “Can I tell you another secret?”

“No.” Aria smiled sadly, “I don’t fancy another kiss.”

“He kissed you?” Dean asked quickly and Aria blushed.

“Where’s Harry?” Ginny asked. Now she was up and had an arm on Luna’s shoulder and the other on Neville.

“Erm. We’re not sure.” Aria replied, “Apparently, Dumbledore’s handling it.” Aria groaned in pain when Ron innocently touched her right arm.

“What’s wrong?” Dean asked, adjusting his grip on Hermione.

“I’m pretty sure my arm’s broken.”

“Aria, is Sirius…” Ginny began, her eyes beginning to fill to the brim with tears.

“Yeah.” Aria said, not really wanting to relive what she had experienced only minutes ago.

“Harry…”

“Yeah...Come on.” Aria said, brushing off Ginny’s questions, “The Order is waiting for us. Which way?”

“This way.” said Luna, “It’s the only door I haven’t checked yet.” Only three doors did not have a magical X on it. They were the door to the Veil Room, the Hall of Prophecies door which was very distinct looking compared to the others, and a door that matched half of the other doors in the room. Assuming this must be the exit, they went through the last door. Sure enough, it led them to the lift they had originally gone down in. When they reached the atrium, they were taken back by the sight. The room was covered in sand. The stone figures that had once been in the center fountain were crushed to pieces on the floor. Dumbledore kneeled over Harry, who lay struggling in the sand.

Harry struggled as Voldemort clawed at his brain, forcing memories to surface in his mind for them both to see. His mother dying, Cedric getting killed, Hermione getting hit by the curse, Sirius dying, Mr. Ashborn getting attacked, Aria crying that night at Grimmauld Place…

“Harry,” Harry could faintly hear Dumbledore say, “It isn’t how you are alike. It’s how you are not.”

Then he saw them. Harry saw his friends standing off in the corner. They were broken and bruised but they were alive. He tried to concentrate on them. He focused on the hugs Hermione would give him, his talks with Sirius, how Aria looked in her Yule Ball dress, that day after his date with Cho and he came in to see Ron, Hermione, and Aria laughing together at Honeydukes…

“You're the weak one…” Harry said, “and you'll never know love or friendship. And I feel sorry for you.” He felt it. Voldemort retreated from him and Harry had his mind back at last.

“You're a fool, Harry Potter.” Voldemort sneered, standing over him, “And you will lose everything.” Suddenly, Aria and the others watched as the fireplaces burned green with fire and Ministry employees filled the atrium. Fudge arrived just in time to see Voldemort disapparate.

Fudge and the other Ministry employees were shocked and their jaws dropped to the floor. “He's back.” said Fudge. Aria felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up to see Lupin, who was carrying Tonks.

“Aria, take the others to the Ministry exit.” he said, “Kingsley is waiting to escort you all on the Knight Bus. Looks like Hermione will need to be taken to the hospital wing immediately. Kingsley has already notified Madam Pomfrey.”

“Where are you going?”

“St. Mungo’s. Now you best get going.”


	27. The Second War Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay but who is Venunus?

A few days later, Ron, Hermione, Aria, and Harry talked in the Hospital Wing. Hermione was taking many potions a day to get her strength up but she was doing well and would be okay by the end of term in three days. Ron was cured but was being kept under observation. Ginny and Aria had been given casts for their injuries and had been released the next day. Neville received quick treatment for his nose but for the most part, him, Dean, and Harry were okay. 

Hermione and Ron sat up in their hospital beds while Aria and Harry sat at the ends of their beds respectively. Hermione had been reading the Daily Prophet.

“It’s good to see you feeling better.” Aria said with a smile.

“Thanks.” Hermione said, putting down the newspaper, “It’s good to see the Ministry finally acknowledging everything that happened.”

“Aria…” Ron started, his face pink, “you remember when I…”

“When you what?” asked Hermione.

“It’s okay, Ron.” Aria laughed, “I know you weren’t yourself.”

“Sorry about that.” he said sounding embarrassed and rubbing the back of his neck.

“Harry,” Aria said, “you haven’t said much.” Just as she said this a Toad-like woman covered in dirt and a tarnished pink dress was escorted into the Hospital Wing and onto a bed in the corner. She did not say anything but merely looked dazed.

“Is that Umbridge?” Harry asked.

Aria laughed, “What did you two do to her anyway?”

“It’s more what she did herself, actually.” said Harry.  
\---------------  
On the last day of term, Aria left the feast early when she realized Harry wasn’t there. She hadn’t really gotten the chance to talk to him about anything yet. She knew he was really sad and wanted to talk to him about it. Maybe she would have some advice for him since she had been going through a lot of similar things lately with her father and Cedric. She caught him walking through the courtyard.

“Harry, wait up!” she called and he paused for her to catch up to him, “How come you aren’t at the feast?”

“Wasn’t hungry.” Harry replied kindly, “What about you?”

“Not hungry.” Aria lied.

“How’s your arm?” Harry asked.

“It’s getting better.”

“Thanks for doing that by the way.” he said with a smile, “Taking that jinx for me. Who knows what would’ve happened if you didn’t.”

“That’s what friends are for…” Aria replied as she tried to think for a segway into what she came to talk about but instead she just went right into it, “I’m sorry about Sirius.”

“Thanks.” Harry said. Aria completely forgot all the things she wanted to say to him to make him feel better and truthfully she wasn’t sure talking about it was something Harry was ready for. So she reached out with her good arm and held his hand. They stopped walking for a moment as he looked down at it. The small gesture seemed to say everything she wanted to say, just like when Harry had held her hand the previous year when Cedric died. She then let go of his hand and he smiled. Then, they kept on walking.  
\---------------------  
Another year at Hogwarts was officially over when Aria got off the train at Platform 9 ¾ ready to find her mother waiting for her on the other side of the barrier. She walked with Dean as Harry, Ron, and Hermione were in front of her.

“Write to me?” Dean asked, nudging her good shoulder.

“I’ll think about it.” she joked.

“Come on. You owe me at least one letter.” Dean smiled, “I did save your life, you know.” She thought it. He did save her from a Killing Curse. She blushed.

“I’ll do you one better.” she smirked and promptly gave him a kiss on the cheek. His hand immediately shot up to where her lips had been and he blushed. Aria waved goodbye to him before continuing on the platform. Her heart was still beating from the brave thing she had just done. 

“Tonks!” Aria exclaimed when she saw her friend standing near the barrier along with Moody, Kingsley, Lupin, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, “I’m glad to see you’re alright!”

“Me? What about you?” Tonks exclaimed, “You fought thirteen Death Eaters.”

“Not all at the same time.” Aria said shyly.

“A Death Eater is Death Eater.” said Tonks.

“Yeah, about that…” said Aria, “Do you know about a Death Eater named Venunus?”

“Well yeah, he’s my cousin.” said Tonks, confused.

“Cousin?”

“Venunus Black.” she continued, “Son of Vega Black and another relative, Rigel Black. Vega is Sirius and Regulus older sister. Although she went by her middle name, Sapphira. Why do you ask?”

Aria hadn’t talked about this with anyone yet and she wasn’t aware of how hard it was for her, “Because he said he was my brother.”

“That’s strange.” replied Tonks with furrowed brows, “I don’t know why he would say that. His parents were Rigel and Sapphira.”

“Were?”

“They’re dead now. Nasty people.” said Tonks, “Rigel was a Death Eater in the first war. Voldemort killed him because he wasn’t the most loyal, I think. Sapphira killed herself out of grief. Venunus ran away the night of Voldemort’s downfall. Now, I guess he became a Death Eater like his father.”

“Strange.” Aria said, wishing more than anything that she could ask her father about this.

“I’ll look into it if makes you feel better, okay?” Tonks said reassuringly.

“Okay.” Aria said before catching up with Harry who was with Hermione, Ginny, Neville, Luna, and Ron.

“I've been thinking about something Dumbledore said to me.” he said to the six of them.

“What's that?” asked Hermione.

“That even though we've got a fight ahead of us, we've got one thing that Voldemort doesn't have.”

“Yeah?” asked Ron.

“Something worth fighting for.” said Harry and with that, they all ran back through the barrier and went their separate ways. Aria knew things were really going to change. They already had, she just didn’t have much of an idea how much until now. Her father was in a coma, Sirius was dead, her heart was ready to love again, Venunus claimed to be her brother, and the Second War had officially begun.


End file.
